ELECTION OF MAYOR.

Southland Times, Issue 1951, 22 July 1874, Page 2

ELECTION OF MAYOR.

Tuesday, the 21st inst., was the polling day for the election of Mayor of Invercargill for the year 1874-5. The day -was rainy throughout, and the election did not, as is usual in similar cases, very observably divert the townspeople from the ordinarily even tenor of their avocations. At nine o'clock in the forenoon, His Worship the Lite Mayor, Mr Gteo. Lumsden, who had been appointed by the Town Council to act as Returning Officer on the occasion, the Town Clerk, Mr W. B. Scandretfc, and scrutineer, entered the Council Hall, where they remained busily employed, till well on in the afternoon, in supplying electors with voting papers, and in superintending, after the usual manner, the business of the election. After all forthcoming burgesses had recorded their votea.theHall doora were locked, and the Returning Officer, the Clerk, and the scrutineers then began their work of counting and examining the voting papers. It was a quarter to five o'clock in the afternoon before the Hall doors were again opened, and the citizens, a considerable number of whom were waiting outside, entered the Chamber. Mr Lumsden then announced the result as follows:— For Mr Pratt, 203 votes ; for Mr G-arthwaite, 109. Mr Pratt was accordingly declared duly elected by a majority of 94 over his opponent. The announcement was received with cheers, and the candidates were called upon by name by the meeting. Mr G-arthwaite was the first to coma forward. He said that he wished sincerely to thauk all those who had voted for him, or who had in any way interested and exerted themselves in his behalf; but he wished emphatically to state that that was the last election he should ever contest — in Invercargill at any rate. (Cries of " No, no.") He had always taken a keen interest in all matters connected with the municipal welfare of Invercargill — even in the days of the old Town Board. But what was the use of it, when a person who had done leas for, and was less deserving of the town, had been returned over his head ? The fact was, he was a blacksmith, and his opponent a wholesale storekeeper, and of course a mechanic, no matter how deserving he might be, could not hope to be elected as Mayor of Invercargill when his rival was a merchant ! That was why he bad lost the day. (.Cries, and murmurs of dissent.) Mr Pratt then came forward and apologised for not being present in the Hall when his name was first called out by the audience. He begged very gratefully and sincerely to thank the citizens for the honor they had done him by electing him as Mayor of Invercargill for the ensuing year. He had always taken a deep, and as they had that day testified, an intelligent, interest in all matters connected with the improvement and the prosperity of the town. He hoped still to do so, and he also hoped, and would zealously endeavor, to fill the office to which they had elected him with credit to himself and profit and satisfaction to his fellow citizens. A vote of thanks to the returning officer, moved by Mr Pratt and seconded by Mr G-arthwaite, three cheers for the defeated candidate, and three more for the retiring Mayor, were warmly accorded, and the assemblage then dispersed.