OUR CANTERBURY LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 7003, 26 July 1884, Page 2

OUR CANTERBURY LETTER.

Chbistchdkch, July 23. The net results of tha elections, so far as this" province is concerned, may, I think, be summed up pretty much as follows : In the first place, as I have already informed you, about 17. or 18 of our members are pledged to BupportSir-. Julius Vogel should ho becomo leader of the Oppposition. It depends upon the combination bir Julius might choose to form for the purpose of getting into power whether he retain the support of all these or no. Supposing him as is generally expected here, to coalesce ;- with Messrs Montgomery, Maeandrew Or-" mond, Stout, and Ballance, I think he might count on about 18 Canterbury votes In tha more unlikely event of Sir Julius joining his fortunes to those of Major Atkinson, he would of course lose Mr Montgomery aud about five more votes. As for a coalition between Sir Julius and Sir George Grey, to the exclusion of both Atkinson and Montgomery, that is looked upon here as quite impossible. Next to Sir Julius Vogel, tha most important thing to which the Canterbury vote is pledged is the construction of the West Coast railway . Almost all our members afo willing that the work should bo done, if possible, by a syndicate without burdening the Colony with an ad-" ditional loan for the purpose. To- this end an endeavour will be made to.get Parliament to pass a bill authorising a concession of land to the extent m value of 30 per cent, of the cost of the line's construction. Should this bill fail to pass, and the syndicate project fall through m consequence, the Canterbury brigade are pledged to-tight tooth and mill to get tho Colony to make the line out of loan If the other provinces show a disposition to oppose either of these schemes, the Canterbury vote will b.e employed to harass them in every possible way by opposing their little schemes. ■ oucn is the programme, which you will call mean and selfish, or simplo and businesslike, according as you sympathise with its object, lhe third plank in tha Canterbury platform is Decentrahsm, under which head comes the non-political management of our railways by boards elected, not nominated. After a careful perusal of the speeches and promises of our many candidates, I think I may safely say that a block vote will be given for this last proposal. _ Another matter on which tho elections have given clear evidence of tho direction of public opinion is educatiou. It was not reserved lor the polling day to put the denomi nationalists out of the running; they were quite of the race long before the moment of its decision. The State system—free, secular and compulsory—may count on 20 votes from' this province in the Parliament which is about tX assemble.

.A- monster" meeting was called by advertisement last Saturday afternoon to express an opinion adverse to the construction of tha West Coast railway by a syndicate, and in favour of Us being made out of loan. It was largely attended, principally by working men An eftor had- been, made to excite feS amongst this class against the notion of as™ dioate on the singularly idiotic grounds that a foreign company would expect to mako a profit out or the work, and might also possibly feel inclined to import cheap foreign labour to aid them in so doing. The original object wi h which the meeting was got up was to carry resolutions expressing these feelings. Portu nately, saner counsels prevailed, and the work ing men present were not found to be such fools as certain people had taken them to be After a good deal of discussion, the only resolu' tion passed was ono affirming the desirability otthe line s construction. The question as to how it was to be done was left open. Among several amusing suggestions made was onl thl A° Ui aX r^ uay auge este^ by a speaker, who declared that the railway would open half a million acres of land worth £2 an acre " Lot the Government," he paid, "raise a million of money on the security of this land, and the thing would be as good as done." Such is tho sortof wisdom of which jvc have had a great deal lately on many platforms. ' .The amount of' humour developed by the elections has notbeen exactly startling, though one or two good stories.are .fold illustrate rather of the seamy side of human nature The Canterbury OPunch, which started Wo temporary existence 10 days since, is about the most miserable of all the unsatisfactory publications of that sort I have ever seen. §om a of the cartoons, however, printed independently shall not describe, because they are of i character [extremely uncomplimentary to m|

Rolleston; and Mr Rolleston is, I am told, much more popular in Dunedin than here. If, however, you or any of your readers are human enough to find pleasure in the misfortune 3of your deareat friends, I recommend you to send for copies. Of the innumerable "skits"and j squibs with which the country, has been deluged, I send you the following advertisement—partly because it is short, partly becauso it is about the best of its sort that we nave besn treated to. Mr Crewes, I ehould mention, was a minister of the Gtospal—a profession which he left to become, first bookseller, then a lecturer, then a politician —

A SONG IN SEASON. Set to a simple strain. Taere's a preacher who no longer to us preaches, since he took to selling papers, books, aad peua, Whose capacity for -wordy, windy speeches Fully equals any forty other men's. Though hilarity we courteously smother, When candidates explain " revolting views," Yet, tike one consideration with another. We dqn't intend to vote for Mr Crewes. Though a preacher lose his appotite for preaching-, Acd find his flock no more will yield him wool, He really shouldn't take to platform screeching, And bellow at a fellow like a bull. For Georgy Grey our working men may ogle. Acd captivate them, every mother's son, ' But-when it comes to Crewes instead ci" Vogel, The choice-should bo a very easy one.

As I -ventured to hint in my telegram of Tuesday, Mr Holmes has beaten Mr Joynt after a desperate contest. The streets yesterday had the appearance of a road to Epsom on the Derby day, as depicted in the Illustrated London News, co many vehicles were there rushing about, and of so many shapes and sizes. Everyone agrees that the South and North Chrißtchurch and Heathcote contests were model displays of electioneering tactics. Mr Holmes is said to have owed his win to a rather smart piece of strategy. It had been arranged between the friends of Sir Julius Vogel and Mr Joynt that if the former got in on the 16th unopposed, his committeemen (old electioneering experts) should devote their energies to helping Mr Joynt. Mr Holmes, however, got wind of this, and one of his political agents succeeded in bringing forward Mr Crewes against Sir Julius, thus keeDing the hands of the Vogelites quite full up to the polling day. It is also rumoured that Mr Pilliet has managed to throw doubts on the validity of the Stanmore election. On the nomination day he proposed one candidate Mr Crewes, seconded another, Mr Wansey | and yet stood as a candidate himself. Mr Wansey declared that he seconded himself but the returning-officer says that as Mr Wansey was not an elector he refused to let him do it.- The position is a little mixed, but will not, I fancy, invalidate the election. The f| working men's" candidates have been horribly beaten, and not a Greyite has been returned. Two Ministerialists (Messrs Rolleston and Sutter) and one trimmer (Mr Allwright) are the only exceptions to the long list of Vogelites—that is, supposing Sir Julius coalesces with Messrs Montgomery and Macandrew, The improvement in the intellectual and social standing of the province's members during the present year has been extraordinary. i»ir Julius Vogel and Messrs Wake6eld, Richardson, Coster, Grigg, Walker, Garrick, Reese, and J. D. Lance have replaced Messrs H. Thompson, Evans Brown, Pilliot, Isaac Willon, M'llraith, Poatlethwaite, Iveas, Wright, and the late Mr Lee. Almo3t the only two candidates of real talent and popularity who have been rejected are Messrs Wason and Clissold. Messrs Joynt and A. Saunders are clever, but not generally liked.