INVERCARGILL.

Southland Times, Issue 11593, 27 November 1890, Page 2

INVERCARGILL.

The contest for the Mayoralty excited a good deal of interest, it being freely stated during the day that whoever proved the successful candidate the second one would be very close on his heels. The struggle was known to be practically between two of the three candidates, the third having no show whatever, and the partisans of each of these two were fairly confident of making a big fight for first honours. As the day progressed, however, the conviction steadily gained ground that Mr Hall would have a substantial majority and the result proved how well founded the expectation was. Of a possible 755 votes 416 were recorded, a better percentage than last year, when only 396 out of 800 votes were polled. About 5 p.m. some 330 ratepayers had visited the polling place and recorded their preference for one candidate or the other, so that, as usual, a considerable proportion of the voting was done during the last available hour. Fif ceen minutes after the closing of the poll the Returning Officer (Mr W. B. Scandrett) appeared in front of the Council Hall and to the 200 odd ratepayers present announced the following to"be the result and declared Mr W. H. Hall duly elected :— W. H. Hall , 253 Jas. Mackintosh ... ... 140 W. H. Mathieson 23 It will be seen from these figures that Mr Hall had a majority of 113 over Mr Mackintosh, and a majority of 90 over both his opponents put together. As Mr Mathieson did not poll one-eighth of the votes recorded for the successful candidate his deposit of LlO becomes forfeit under section 52 of the Municipal Corporations Act, and will be added to the borough fund. Mr Hall was received with cheers and said it gave him great pleasure to be able to thank the electors very heartily for the manner in which they had rolled up and placed him at the head of the poll. He did not think they had done so because of any peculiar merit of his own over and above the merits of the other candidates, but simply because of their knowledge that it was the duty of the ratepayers to give credit to those who had worked for a certain period of time. He trusted the same feeling would continue, and that in future the electors would also give honour to those who worked for them. He trusted his actions as Mayor would prove satisfactory to every ratepayer; he would do his best for the town and would endeavour to occupy the chair in the same creditable and honourable manner that it had been occupied in the past. (Cheers). Mr Mackintosh thanked the ratepayers who had voted for him, and especially those who had exerted themselves on his behalf. The election had been fought fairly and Mr Hall was at the top of the poll. He attributed his defeat to the fact that he was engaged in another contest elsewhere, and said that if the general election had been in October as was at first intended, matters might have been very different, Mr Mathieson said he very sincerely thanked those who had voted for him that day. He had gone against the ordinary practices of electioneering warfare and had not personally canvassed for votes—he had been in Rome, had not done as the Romans do, and had consequently suffered. He had stood on his principles and been defeated, but he trusted that at any future time he came before the ratepayers they would give him their votes. He regretted that the Southland Times had made an uncalled for attack on him in that morning's issue. He had stated that he brought down a scheme whereby LGOO would be saved to the Corporation without impairing the efficiency of the staff. He reiterated that statement and challenged the Times or anyone to prove him wrong. When next he came before them he hoped to be more successful. A vote of thanks to the Returning Officer terminated the proceedings.