The Otago Witness DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, FEB. 25.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 1004, 25 February 1871, Page 13

The Otago Witness DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, FEB. 25.

The election for the Superintendency is virtually over, because, although all the returns may not be in for a few days, the result as indicated by those already to hand cannot be altered. The election, as on all former ocoasions, has been decided by the Dunedin voting. | Under any circumstances, the chance of Mr Reid pulling up the immense majority which his opponent obtained in the City would have appeared hopeless. Yet, if the returns which we publish elsewhere are analysed, it will be seen that, notwithstanding this majority, if re-union with Southland had not taken place, Mr Macandrew would have been defeated by more than a hundred votes. Id can hardly be said that in any instance the "ballot-box has reversed the decision indicated by the electors at the various meetings held by the candidates during their electioneering tour. In whatever part of the country Mr Macandrew met with an adverse vote, it will be found that he is in a considerable minority. In those districts, too, which have returned members of the House of Representatives holding views similar to Mr Reid's, the same result will be observed. By their votes of Monday last, the country districts have recorded their opinion of the Government Financial Scheme in an unmistakeabie manner. When addressing the Dunedin electors, immediately after the result of the city voting was made known, Mr Magandrew ungenerously remarked that 'he could not say that he altogether regarded the result as a personal triumph, but as a triumph over narrowmindedness and ignorance' — meaning thereby, we suppose, that the country districts are the strongholds of those vices. "We deprecate the taste in which those words were uttered, especially when it is considered that the speaker, according to his own acknowledgment, was flushed with victory at the time. The men whom Mr Macandrew has termed narrow-minded and ignorant are mostly fixtures in the province. They and their families have made Otago their home, they do not look forward to clearing out of the country within the next few years, and amongst them will be found many, who although they do not take an active part in public affairs, are equal, if not superior, to Mr Macandrew in intelligence. The recent elections have shown that the party which is opposed to his views regarding the Government Colonising Scheme, forms at any rate a very respectable minority of the electors — one which may not improbably be changed into a majority in the course of a few months. There is no doubt that the votes of those electors have been recorded with a sincere desire to avoid additional taxation, and we do not believe that there is a single representative of the people within this province, save and except Mr Macandrew, who, because the views of a large section of the electors differed from his own, would have offered such an insult to the supporters of an opponent. Last week we certainly did not anticipate that we would be called

upon so soon to speak in unfevotnv able terms of the people's choice; there are few, however, but will think that Mr Macandrew'b language has left no other course open to us. We had hoped that with the polling day, all the animosities arising out of the election would have been allayed, and to no one more than the fuccessful candidate did we look for a few pleasant words, uttered, while still full of gratitude in his heart at having gained the prize for which he had so ardently striven, with the view of soothing the ill feeling engendered by the electioneering proceedings. In this hope, however, we have been woefully disappointed ; where we expected to find gratitude, nothing apparently but malice lurks. We regret exceedingly that there should have been occasion for our writing in these terms. We should have failed, however, in our duty had we not resented the slight which has been oast upon a large and important section of the public by the newly elected Superintendent of the Province.