LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 883, 6 September 1879, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

I The election for a member of the House of Representatives, for the East Coast, i having been fought ont, very fairly, as J we conceive, on both sides — the committees of the two candidates having performed their work right well — wo decline to open up a discussion as to the methods adopted by the contending committees for their local candidates. There were three men m the field, one of whom only oould be returned, and he has been returned by an unmistakeable majority. Of the feeling of the electors north and south oan be no two opinions. Why, then, should we be required to open up a question which can only result m bitterness of feeling and much h*art-burning. The election is over, and there is an end of it. It will be seen by our advertising columns, that Mr E. K. Brown has publicly announced his candidature for the Borough Council, The elections will take place on Thursday next. Mr Brown is among the oldest of the Gisborne burgesses, and has always taken an active interest m all local matters tending to the benefit and advancement of the town and district. We reckon upon Mr Brown's return as amounting to a certainty. Te Pokiha Taranui has withdrawn from the contest as representative for the Eastern Maori electoral district.

We are pleased to learn that the information for libel laid by Mr W. L. Rees against Mr J. A. Bromfield, has been withdrawn, the latter gentleman having made an ample written apology for the unjustifiable attack made on Mr Rees m a placard posted throughont the town yesterday. Sir George Grey's financial statement does not appear m Hansard, but m its place is the following apology : — " Sir George Grey delievered his financial statement. [As the honorable member was apparently reading the statement, and as Fiuancial Statements had always previously been supplied to Hansard, the reporter m the gallery did not take notes. Tbe statement not having been supplied, and no report having been taken, there is no record of it.]" On the 25th inst., there will be an election for two Borough Councillors to fill the vacancies extraordinary caused by the resignation of Councillors Page and Walker. We are very pleased m being able to mention that Mr C. D. Bennett has accepted an invitation to stand his election. As a late town clerk to the Borough, aud one who initiated the whole business requisite for bringing the working machinery of the Council into operation, the burgesses could not /?nd from among any candidates who may come forward, a better man or one likely to be more useful at his seat m the Council. Mr Bennett's services as Town Clerk were most valuable, and whether as a private citizen or m his public capacity he is held m the highest esteem. The Parliament of New South Wales, m the recent session, voted away the enormous sum of £13.453,970 for a population of 710,000. At tlie same rate the Imperial Parliament would vote £665,000,000, or more than eight times the amount actually appropriated. The Aahburton Mail tells the following pitiable story of what it justly terms an " unfortunate family" : — •• Some families are born to misfiv tune. The circumstances of the Wren family are singular. It is not •many months ago since Richard Wren, a small settler, occupied a comfortable homestead with his wife and children. Bad crops brought poverty, and the old proverb, 1 When poverty comes m at the door, love flies out of the window,' was realised. Mrs. Wren, with a child only a few days old m her arms, appeared at the Magistrate's Court one cold inclement morning, to demand separation from her husband. A few days later she was found wandering about among the tussocks, and committed to the asylum for lunacy. A week or two elapsed, and at the request of the father, three young children — what remained of the family — were sent to a charitable institution. Yesterday the misfortunes of the family — culminated m the father himself being committed, on the certificate of two medical men, to the same institution, where bis demented wife resides. Thus, within the brief space of a few weeks, a family, comprising father, mother, and several young children, have had to be consigned to the public institutions of the Colony — not for any crimes, but the victim of misfortune. An order has been made that the remains of their little fortune shall be devoted to their maintenance as long as it lasts." The Maori who was recently condemned to death for alleged witchcraft by a native committee at Ormond, Poverty Bay, is now m Napier, en route for Taupo, where he will reside with Pohipi's people. Probably the most unblushing of logrollers m the late Parliament was Mr. J. C. Brown, of Tuapeka. This is what the Otago Daily Times says of him : — " Mr. J. C. Brown is not a, statesman ; he is not a philosopher ; he is not a political economist. He does not pretend to be a brilliant speaker, or aspire to be a leader of men m the ordinary sense of the phrase. I And yet Tuapeka is his pocket borough. He is as safe of the suffrages of the enlightened electors of that' district as if he had all the brilliant qualities of Sir George Grey himself— aud whj ?He himself 3upplies us with the answer, and to put it plainly it is this : Mr. J. C. Brown is Ihe most 'successful and accomplished political pick-"pooket m the House." Some very true remarks anent Government advertising were uttered by Mr. De Latour during the debate on the " No Confidence " motion. He explained that, taking the big morning papers, most of them paid about £200 per week m wages alone, without any other expenses, or from £7,000 to £10,000 per annum. The receipts would be from £15,000 to £20,000 per annum, and all these takings came from the mass of the people. The advertisements from the Public Works Department were squeezed, so that there were really no profit m them. Men m a large way of business, such as Mr. Buckland m Auckland, were worth more to tho papers than all the Governments m Australasia. Any large companyyieHed more profit m advertising than the Government. What gave the larare papers the power was that they had good men connected with them, who were well trained to the business. Considering the cheese-parinsr manner the Government advertisements are doled out, ' and the small sums any of the papers derive from that source of revenue, it was ridiculous to think that it would influence the opinions of tht editors who conduct them.