POLLING DAY.

Southland Times, Issue 2247, 27 December 1875, Page 2

POLLING DA Y.

The poll to determine the return of a member to represent Invercargili in the General Assembly took place at the Resident Magistrate's Courthouse on Friday, the24thinst. The supporters of the two candidates Mr Cuthbertson, Abolitionist, and Mr Lumadeu. Provincialist, began their work early in the morning, and continued it with unremitting energy till 4 o'clock m the afternoon, when the poll closed. From the beginning it was apparent that the contest would be a keen one, and that the winner, whoever he might be, would not have much of a majority. The result justified the anticipation. Towards 5 o'clock a crowd of between 300 and 400 people assembled around the hustings plitform. and ab a little after 5 the Returning Officer made a non-official declaration of the poll, to the effect that Mr Lumsden had polled 180, and Mr Cuthbertson 159 votes. This announcement was received with enthusiastic cheering by the Provincialist party Uoth candidates ascended the platform. Mr Lumsden, in thanking the electors, said that Invercargill had spoken out, and the result of the poll showed how gross had been the misrepresentations made with regard to the opinion held by the people of the district on the question of Abolition. He was proud, but not so much perhaps at b^-ing re urned at the head of the poll as at having been the means of giving the electors an opportunity of expressing their real opinion on the question which had of late most agitated the country. Mr Cuthbertson thanked his friends for the support which they had given him. Mr Lumsden was now the representative for Invercargili— the electors had decided so, and they were bound to respect the decision of the community. He for one would do so. But the abolition of the provinces was a great reform, and neither that election nor any other of a bitnilar kind would retard its progress. (Cheers.) A vote of thanks to the Returning Offijer, MrA.C Henderson, who acknowledged the courtesy, closed the proceedings. |