it upon St. Leonards, against the wish of its inhabitants. The Mayor had read the Town’s Improvement Act, and thought it in every way preferable to the Health of Town’s Act. — T. B. Williams would read more of the Act before voting either way. — Mr. Harvey found the Health of Towns Act to be more of a permissive than of a compulsory character, and he therefore advised caution in getting the provisional order, so as to have inserted just what they wanted, and nothing more. — The motion having been carried, the Mayor remarked that they had laid the foundation for duties much more arduous than hitherto, and he hoped that while they took care of the public health, they would also take care of the public purse.
The Municipal Elections on the 1st of November resulted in the West Ward in the re-election of Mr. Deudney by 3 votes: ditto, of Mr. Peerless, by two votes, and the non-election of Mr. H. W. Tree, with 1 vote. For the East Ward there was a remarkably heavy poll, Anthony Harvey (C.) being elected by 552 votes; Thos. Ross (L.) by 505; Chas. Burfield (C.) by 498; and John Cousens (L.) by 456. The losing candidate, Will Ginner, obtained 455 votes, and was thus only one vote behind Cousens.
The Mayor elected on the 9th of November was Jas. Emary, of the Castle Hotel, he being also a Councillor, professing Liberal opinions in politics. The election was unanimous, the proposer being Mr. Harvey, a Conservative, and the seconder being Mr. Putland, a Liberal. But even this unanimity was somewhat broken by political sparring between two antagonists who could rarely be accused of superfluous courtesy. Mr. Harvey previously expressed a hope that Mr. Ross would not vote, as it was intended to appeal to the Queen’s Bench on the validity of his vote, in consequence of the failure of due preparation in his district of the Voter’s list. Mr. Ross retorted that he didn’t care a snap of the finger for Harvey, nor for anything he might say. Mr. Harvey then said “Ross’s Scotch blood is up” “Yes!” said Ross, “My Scotch blood is up. It’s no disgrace to be a Scotchman, and my position as second on the poll shows that the people think differently to Mr. Harvey”. Here, the latter Councillor neglected his chance of having the last word by replying that “the difference in the people’s mode of thinking and acting was shown by placing you second on the poll, with 47 votes below me”. — It was, however, amusingly curious to find Mr. Ross proposing a vote of thanks to the outgoing Mayor, and Mr. Harvey seconding the same, with the remark of the latter, “We agree on this motion, and I doubt not we shall shake hands before we leave the meeting”.
The Aldermen elected were Messrs. Emary and Clift, for the first time, and Dr. Mackness, for the second time.
The Burgesses in a fix The warm expressions by Councillors Ross and Harvey at the meeting above described arose from an irregularity of which neither party was the author, and which will be fully understood by means of the following paragraph taken -
