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Oamaru Mail, Volume III, Issue 788, 21 October 1878, Page 2

To say that the miners of Livingstone are indignant would be using a phrase totally inadequate to express faithfully their feelings at the present moment. They are infuriated, and the cause of their infuriation is, as expressed in our own con-espondent's letter and the letter of "-An elector but not a shepherd," which appear in another column, the removal of the polling place for the election of their representative in the County Council from Livingstone to Otekaike. Smarting under a sense of the injustice that is being done them, it is not a matter for surprise that the electors of Livingstone should not beat about the bush in expressing their opinions of those by whom the change has been wrought. But we are unwilling to believe that the County Council desire to treat the Liviugstonians unfairly, and cannot help thinking that their action is the result of inadvertence. The people of Livingstone have a claim to that of which they are being deprived by the Council—the continuation of the privilege of being able to vote for the election of representatives without being-necessitated to leave their township and their labors for a length of time that would be productive of loss that they can ill afford. We fear that if the Council insisted upon those residing at Livingstone desiring to vote proceeding to Otekaike in order to do so, they would virtually disfranchise the Livingstonians. But we think it likely that now that the matter has been brought prominently before the Council, the cause for dissatisfaction will be removed. TV hat interest could the Hon. Mr. Campbell or tinCounty Council have in depriving i!n electors of Livingstone of one of their old privileges and bestowing it upon the elei-t«>rs around Otekaike? None whatever. Mr. Campbell might have l>ad differences with the miners of Livingstone in the past ; but we think that they are all over now ; and, if they still existed, Mr. Campbell is not the man to use his influence f.or the purpose of tormenting theni. If a polling place is required at Otekaike, it should be instituted, but obviously not at the expense of Livingstone.