PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 582, 18 November 1869, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL ELECTIONS.

THE BULLER DISTRICT. O'CONOR and REID RETURNED. Since Monday the election of two members of the Provincial Council for the Buller district has been so interesting that other local or general subjects have received little or no consideration. This must be excuse for an absence of variety in the news we present, and the fact of one of the elected members being professionally associated with this journal must be excuse for the rather brief and defective report which, in this number, we are only able to give of the proceedings. The three candidates were Messrs O'Conor, Braithwaite, and Reid. On Monday Mr O'Conor held a meeting at Addison's Flat. Mr Gallagher, M.H.R., was in the chair, and there was a numerous attendance. Mr O'Conor spoke much to the satisfaction of the meeting, and at the conclusion made a point of the fact or fiction of the other candidates, Messrs Braithwaite and Reid, " running together" on the northern terraces. The advice and agreement was to " plump " for Mr O'Conor. On the same evening Mr Reid visited German Terrace, but did not hold a meeting. Next day, Mr O'Conor addressed some of the electors at Hatter's, German, and Caledonian Terraces; andfiually in town. Mr Braithwaite did the same at the lastmentioned terraces. Mr Reid visited Addison's Flat, and, having ascertained the feeling there, returned—too late to attend the meeting appointed to be held at German Terrace.

On the Northern Terraces, the polling place was at the Caledonian. Notwithstanding the distance and the difficulties which had to be overcome in polling at a most inconvenient situation, nearly three hundred miners left their claims and their work, and went to the poll. Thev polled 193 ■ for Braithwaite, 149 for Ileid.and 102 for O'Conor. The polling place could not, by ingenuity, be contrived to be more inconvenient than it was for the entrance and exit of electors to record their votes, and only at a late hour a " happy thought " occurred—to permit of the " free and independent," when he had recorded his vote, retiring gracefully or otherwise through an opened window. In front of the polling booth—Mr Braithwaite's store — there was some close canvassing, some horn-pipe dancing, and a fancy fight in which a nigger and a " white man " were engaged. There was the utmost good humor exhibited by the friends of all the candidates, and some amount of the humorous, chiefly represented by Mr William Graham—an ancient and fri&ky politician. The result of the polling was received with great cheering, and Mr Braithwaite, by the invitation of the assembled crowd, mounted a griudstone, and thanked tlie considerable majority who had voted for him. He said that, whatever the result might be, he was gratified by the miners having shown so great an interest in the return of one peculiarly representing their own interest?. Mr Eeid also mounted the grindstone, aud addressed the considerable crowd which had by that time assembled. He said he was highly gratified by the result of the poll on the Terraces, and by the number who had polled for all the candidates. Itindicated an interest in public affairs quite new and refreshing in this district. The result he anticipated, after Mr Braithwaite had " started," was that he himself should be at the foot of the poll, and he expected the same now ; but he was indifferent. He had not come forward as a candidate. He had done so at the request ef others whose superior judgment was that he was somewhat fitted to be their representative. If returned, he would endeavor to do his duty; if not, he hoped they would all feel none the worse, and a little the wiser. He disavowed any connection with any placards which had by " damned good-natured friends" been issued on his or others' behalf, and he congratulated himself on the fact that, whatever another candidate had done, he had not said a single word against either of the others. He respected the others. It was a question with him whether he fully respected himself. He had said little, and he thought that, except for selfinterest or temporary success, it was often better to say little than to say much. He concluded by making two apologies—one to himself for believing that he was a " muff" speaker, and the other to the residents of the Terraces for not addressing them oftener, as he ought to have done, if he had been able to command the time. Had he done so he knew that he would have polled many more votes than the many which, as it was, had been freely given to him by worthy friends. After Mr Eeid had spoken, Mr "William Graham mounted the grindstone, and entertained for some time a good-natured audience. i" . The polling in ( town for' the first few hours went ' very ' slowly and qnietly. Little or no excitement was observable in town until late in the afternoon, as most of the electors seemed anxious to know what the reports were from the Northern Ter-

races. About two o'clock Mr O'Conor came in from the Caledonian Terrace, and soon signified to his friends his hopes of certainty of being returned, and a few sporting bets were made, the odds given on his heading the poll. A good many miners voted in town, and the business, so far as the Returning Officer was concerned, was light, and easily disposed of. Of the proceedings at Addison's we have no advices beyond the fact that, from the encouraged fear that Braitbwaite and Reid were dangerously strong on the Northern Terraces, the majority " plumped " for O'Conor. The following was the result of the poll, in detail and aggregate:— O'Conor. Reid. Braithwaite. Town ... 97 83 27 Caledonian 102 149 193 Addison's 105 15 1 Total... 304 247 221