ELECTION NEWS.

SOUTH BOURKE ELECTION.
NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES.

This ceremony came off on Tuesday, at the Governor Hotham Hotel, Hawthorne. R. Kent, Esq., Returning Officer, presided. There were about two hundred persons present, most of whom were electors. The hustings were placed on a temporary balcony erected outside the upper story windows of the hotel, from which the candidates, with their movers and seconders, addressed the people. The Returning Officer provided excellent accommodation for the members of the press, who were placed on the hustings to the left of the chair.

THE RETURNING OFFICER requested a fair and impartial hearing for those gentlemen who would address them. No one would interfere with the expression of their opinion, but at the same time order must be preserved. He then read the writ, and announced the order in which the candidates would be brought before the meeting, with their proposers and seconders. He hoped an impartial hearing would then be afforded to each speaker. At the close of each speech approbation or disapprobation might be expressed.

Alderman WALSH, J.P., had the honor of proposing the first candidate, and only regretted that the duty had not devolved on some abler hand. They had all read the address and speeches of Captain Pasley, a man of honor. (Cries of "No! No! — Hear, hear.") None of his public acts could be called in question. (Toorak !) Captain Pasley would do his best for the colony, and for this district in particular. (Great confusion.) He had much pleasure in moving the nomination of Captain Pasley. (Mixed cheers.).

Mr WADE esteemed it a great honor to come before the electors of South Bourke to second the nomination of Captain Pasley. (Confusion. A voice : We want no Government officer.) We want gentlemen. (You want a situation; where's your qualification.) The speaker continued some time in praise of the candidate; was much interrupted, and at length was silenced with cries of Time ! Time 1 He retired before a storm of cheering and yelling.

Mr TOON said he came before them to propose Mr David Young. (Ironical cheers and great hilarity.) He was a working man, and as such claimed a hearing. (We want no whiskey maker.) Mr Young was a good man. There might be a better. ( Hear, hear.) He was an anti-state aid man, and as such was the very best man that could be found. He would not support the Government. The speaker here was very indignant at what he called the rudeness with which he had been heard. He was obliged to retire before a storm of disapprobation.

Mr RICHARDSON, as a working man, seconded the nomination of Mr Young. Never mind about private character! (Great confusion.) He would still maintain that Mr Young was the fittest man that could be found to represent their interests. (Loud laughter.)

Mr BOWMAN said that after the very able addresses they had that day heard, it would ill become him to compliment them. As a working man he came to persuade them and not to dogmatize to them. He had to name the man whom he thought fittest to represent the constituency of South Bourke. (Cries of name, name.) He would name to them Mr Francis Stephen. (Great confusion.) He was a son of the soil, and as such had their interests at heart. His own interests were bound up with theirs. (Noise.)

Mr PATTERSON seconded the nomination, but was not distinctly heard amid the great noise that prevailed.

Mr BRUCE had much pleasure, as a farmer, in proposing to the electors the name of Sydney Ricardo. (Cheers.) His interests were thoroughly bound up with those of the district, and he had talent to impress his views on the House. He would represent, and he alone of all the candidates named that day, the agricultural interest in the House, and unless he was elected, this important interest would be unrepresented; and on those grounds he called upon the electors to support the friend of the working man.

Mr O'FLAHERTY seconded the nomination, and said that up to the present time, in neither House was there a farmer; but he trusted that this would not be the case after the 17th inst., when he hoped to see Mr Ricardo returned, and at the head of the poll. (Loud cheers.) He was glad to see on this occasion too, a Scotchman propose an Englishman, and he an Irishman seconded the same man.

Mr NEIL McLEAN proposed Mr O'Brien as a fit and proper person to represent the electors in the House of Assembly. (Hear, hear.) He would make no speech, and would content himself with the simple performance of that duty.

Mr HILL seconded the nomination. (A voice, "don't you know anything about him?")

Mr HENRY BOX would name Mr Foxton as a fit and proper person. He would take the candidates in order, and first for Mr O'Brien. (Great confusion, and cries of "Lie down.") Mr O'Brien was not a fit and proper person. (Great noise.) He denied the fitness of Mr O'Brien. (Time, time.) He would bring before their notice an intelligent man. ("Speak of Foxton.") They all should lay bye the notion of being Irishmen. (Great noise.) Mr O'Brien had been a tried man and found wanting; (Cries of "Speak of your own man.") He was an Englishman, and would not be put down. (Great noise, amid which Mr Box was obliged to retire, after having endeavored to make an attack on Mr O'Brien.

Mr HELLICAR came forward on this important occasion. (A Voice: "As a wheelwright;") This was an important occasion, and at this time they did not want to send into Parliament men who merely could teach them how to distil whiskey. (Great confusion.) Mr Foxton did not come forward as a candidate under Government control. (Great noise and much dissatisfaction.) They should return Mr Foxton. (Loud cries of disapprobation.) He seconded the nomination.

The RETURNING OFFICER said he would then call upon the candidates in the order in which they had been proposed to address the electors, and he hoped they would obtain a fair and impartial hearing. They could express their feelings at the close of each gentleman's speech.

CAPTAIN PASLEY, who was received with loud cheers, said he was glad to find himself once more face to face with the electors, as he had thereby an opportunity of stating his opinions to them. During the foregoing part of the proceedings there had been rather more noise than he had anticipated, but now, if they would be silent for a few minutes, he would say to them all that he intended on the present occasion. He had seen that morning as soon as his name had been mentioned, that an objection had been taken to him on the ground that he was a Government officer. (Cries — "We want no Government man!" and several cheers.) But then, they should remember that there must be some government, and if they rejected him, they or some other constituency must elect some one that would take his place in the Government. (Cheers, and cries of "We don't want you.") Without a government the country could not get on, and he therefore did not consider it a just objection to him that he was a member of the Government. He would not at that time go over the various subjects that in presence of so many of them he had already so often explained; he thought that would be a waste of time: but still there were one or two things that he thought he might on that occasion very properly lay before them. In his department at the head of the public works he thought he would have the best opportunity of any of the candidates of forwarding such local works as might be required in the district. And there was not one of them who would take a greater interest in the affairs of the district than he would. He knew that in this district there was some opposition to the formation of a local road board, and that opposition, he knew, was grounded on certain deficiencies of the road act. He would endeavor to have the deficiencies of the act supplied. (Cries, "We'll have no taxation.") He thought the people in each district ought to have full control of the roads, and that their efforts should be supplemented by the Government with aid from the general revenue of the country. The present system was not perfect, and he would, if elected, use every effort to improve it. (Cheers.) On the subject of education, he felt certain that all would agree with him that something determinate and effectual should be done. It would be a deep disgrace to this community, the richest perhaps in the world, if the children were allowed to grow up in ignorance. (Hear, hear.) For himself, he preferred and would endeavor to procure a religious education for the youth of the colony. He would have the Denominational system wherever it could be introduced; and in thinly populated districts, where that system was inapplicable, he would then admit the National system. (Cheers.) On the ballot question, after seeing its great success, and (a Voice: "You voted against it.") After seeing its great success, and the benefits arising from it, he was decidedly in its favor, and would sanction no interference with its operations, except for its improvement. (Cheers.) He would say nothing on the subject of any of the other candidates. (Cheers.) It was the electors, and not him who were called upon to make the choice. But whether elected or not, he hoped that every man in the constituency would record their votes. It was a duty they owed to their country, and to justice.

Mr DAVID YOUNG was received with ironical cheers, and cries of "Hilloa, Davy," "Oh! oh! O — O." He was proud to stand before them that day as a candidate for their suffrages. He was an anti-State-aid man, and would go in on that principle, and stand or fall by it. (Loud laughter.) The grant had at one time been £30,000; it had since been raised to £50,000; and what guarantee had they that it would not still be carried higher. ("Well done, Davy!") He would tell those slanderers and liars that he had been a convert — (A voice, "A convict.") He had been a convert to this question for the last eight years. (The speaker was so frequently interrupted with bitter sarcasm and ironical cheering, that it was impossible to follow him.)

Mr F. STEPHEN said he need not tell them that he had been beaten at St. Kilda. They all knew that. But then he had not been fairly beaten. Four hundred and twenty-six votes had been recorded in his favor, and if all that had pledged themselves to him had redeemed those pledges, he would have been returned. Those four hundred and twenty-six that voted for him were the working men. (Voices: "How do you know?") Men, who allied themselves gentlemen, promised him their votes and then voted against him. (Loud cries of "How do yon know?") Because they told him. Had he been fairly beaten in one constituency he would not have come forward in another. (Cheers.) But this not having been the case, he, as a son of the soil, came before them to solicit their votes. He knew every inch of their district, and was well acquainted with all their wants. He was no placeman, and wanted no pension. His only ambition was to serve his country, and if he found that he could not carry out his views and redeem his pledges, be would resign his trust into their hands. He only asked a fair trial. They had new Houses of Parliament, and ought to put a majority of new men into these Houses. They should infuse some young blood into the legislature, and give a chance to the youths of the colony. (Cheers.) He would be satisfied if only placed second on the poll.

Mr RICARDO was received with loud cheers, he came forward to seek the suffrages of the electors simply to represent their interest in the New Parliament. He was no party man. He sought nor wanted no favor from the State nor from the Government, and he thought he had been sufficiently tested amongst them, he had been here for the last fourteen years. During all that time he had been a resident in South Bourke, with the wants of which he was well acquainted, and with the interests of which he was thoroughly identified. If they sent in a Melbourne man as their representative, he warned them they would only send in another member for Melbourne, and then the money that should be expended in the district would be retained in Melbourne. There, their only talk was of docks and wharves, canals, and river improvements, but there was nothing about improvements for this rural district. He spoke about railways: but give him common roads first. For one hundred miles of railway a thousand miles of roadway could be constructed, (cheers) and he put it to them which would confer most benefit upon the rural population. Railways would bring the lands of the interior into competition with them, and they were not prepared to enter upon such a competition. They would be undersold in their own market. He hoped they would sink all nationalities on the present occasion, and only remember they were Australians. As a local improvement he would try and have the Toll-gate removed from the Melbourne side of the river to this side, so that the money would be expended for the benefit of those, who paid it. (Cheers.) He had been the originator of two ideas which would go into the House if he himself did not go there: One was the Repeal of the Distillation Law; and the other was an effective measure for the Suppression of Horse stealing. On this subject the Government had passed two laws, neither of which was effective. Why was this? Simply because they were not deeply interested in the subject. It remained to a few men to find a remedy for the evil. He would also endeavor to remove the taxes from tea and sugar, and finally, as a free man and one of themselves, he called upon them for their support. He had made no personal canvass, because he thought that under the Ballot every man should be allowed to act for himself, and he had respected the Ballot.

Mr PATRICK O'BRIEN was received with loud cheers. He said, that now, after three years spent in the service of the country, he once more appeared before them as a candidate for their suffrages. (A voice: "Go to Kilmore.") He had three years experience in the art of legislation, and during that time he defied any man to point out one single act of his that had been hostile to the interests of the people. (Cheers.) His friend, Mr Henry Box, when commenting upon him, had not mentioned any such act. He — (Mr O'Brien) — had expected he would have tried it. But he could not. Standing before the electors he did not want a character from Mr Henry Box. He could well afford to do without that; and now he was in their hands, and not in the hands of Mr Box. (A voice: "He'll soon be under the sod.') He could appeal with pride to several acts of his in the Legislative Council. His measures on the Land System, and that on the Immigration System were alone sufficient then to mention. In fine, he was identified with the district, and with the colony. He was no bird of passage, and was the recipient of no £2,000, for which he would be expected to cringe to the Government.

Mr FOXTON said he was last to address them, but he hoped to be first on the poll. He would not detain them many minutes. (Cries of "Time's up.") He would make the squatters pay an acreage rental for their runs, and he would remodel the Road Board, and have Local Road Boards assisted by the Government. Every means and facility should be given to the cause of education; and he was in favor of State-aid to religion. (Cheers.) It had been said that he was a supporter of Government. But, so far from that, he knew less about the seven gentlemen who constituted the government than any other gentleman in tho colony. He would, if elected, bring whatever ability he possessed, to the service of the constituency. And he was not afraid but that he would be returned.

The RETURNING OFFICER said that one more duty remained to be performed. He must now call for a show of hands in favor of each candidate.

The show of hands was taken, with the following result:—

Captain Pasley	64	Hands were held up
Mr Young	26	do.
Mr F. Stephen	15	do.
Mr Ricardo	68	do.
Mr O'Brien	56	do.
Mr Foxton	45	do.

The RETURNING OFFICER declared the show of hands to have been in favor of Mr Ricardo and Captain Pasley.

A poll was demanded by the other candidates, which was fixed for the 17th inst., to take place at Hawthorne, Oakleigh, Gardine, and Templestowe. Any alteration in these polling-places would be announced before the day of polling.

A vote of thanks was then passed to the Returning Officer, and the proceedings terminated.

Source: The Age, Wed 8 Oct 1856, Page 4, Election News.

SOUTH BOURKE ELECTION.

The declaration of the poll for the District of South Bourke took place about noon yesterday, at the Governor Arthur Hotel, Hawthorne. About fifty people were present, when Robert Kent, Esq., the returning officer, mounted the skeleton of a new building, near the hotel, and gave the final result of the polling, as follows:—

Captain Pasley	397
Patrick O'Brien	303
Sidney Ricardo	295
David Young	208
John Greenlaw Foxton	187
Francis Stephen	77

He, therefore, declared Captain Pasley and Patrick O'Brien, Esq., duly elected members for the District of South Bourke.

Source: The Age, Wed 22 Oct 1856, Page 5.