Municipal Election. The outgoing members of the Council were Messrs. C. P. Hutchings, J. Amoore, C. J. Jeudwine, and T. B. Williams, in the East Ward. Mr. Jeudwine declined standing again, but the others sought re-election, and five other candidates appeared in the persons of J. Emary, jun., S. Gutsell, J. R. Bromley, G. Winter and R. Funnell. In the West Ward the outgoing Councillors were C. Neve and J. Rock, jun. These stood for re-election, with H. W. Tree, a third candidate. The polling commenced at nine and closed at four, the votes being taken at the Town Hall and the St. Leonards St. Leonards Assembly Rooms. At Hastings the presiding alderman was C. Clift, Esq., and at St. Leonards, G. Clement, Esq. The numbers polled for the East Ward candidates were J. Emary, jun., 513; S. Gutsell, 493; T. B. Williams, 463; J. Amoore, 441. J. R. Bromley 416; C. P. Hutchings, 383; G. Winter, 306; and R. Funnell 149. Thus two of the old members and two new candidates were returned. In the West Ward the numbers were 176 for Neve, 170 for H. W. Tree, and 94 for J. Rock, jun. It was difficult to account for the rejection of Mr. Rock, who was one of the most intelligent members of the Council and had done much extraneous work in connection with the Great Exhibition and in other ways, both for the honour and the benefit of the town. As a municipal election the proceedings were both unusual and disreputable; a faithful description appeared in the Hastings News as follows. —
- “The recent election for the vacant seats in the Town Council has given rise in the East Ward to a contest probably more severe than ever yet known on a like occasion. . . . . So far as appearances could be trusted, it was evident that one consideration reigned paramount with the election agents — namely, that of securing the return of those who would best serve political purposes. We make this statement fearlessly, as it is a matter of public notoriety; and, as it is a matter of fault on both sides of the question, our neutrality cannot be compromised by this declaration. In the West Ward there was little or no excitement, but in the East Ward a most active contest raged. Public-houses were marvellously hospitable, and beer abounded. Flies were darting about incessantly while the poll was open. Despite the humid atmosphere and muddy streets, a large crowd assembled in and about the Town Hall, provoking the curious observer to a calculation of how many days were lost in the aggregate to the working-men of Hastings by their anxiety to see the proceedings connected with this annual saturnalia. As the day wore on here and there a drunken man would be seen rolling and staggering through the streets, and by the evening the number of inebriates was disgraceful to the reputation of the town. Working men, scarcely able to keep on their feet from intoxication, were to be seen on every hand, reeling about with cigars in their mouths. The ordinary tobacco-pipe seemed to be renounced for the day. To any reflecting mind the scene was a strange compound of the melancholy and the absurd. The drunkenness -
