NOTES FROM NELSON.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 279, 26 June 1886, Page 2

NOTES FROM NELSON.

(from our own CORRESPONDENT.)

A School Difficulty.

Some people, when endowed with a little brief authority, are particularly fond of putting side on, and letting the public know that they are somebody: An extreme instance of this is just now under consideration in Nelson. There is a certain site situated between the Provincial buildings and the classic eel pond. It was originally the first seat of learning in the settlement for juvenile colonists, and was crown granted to four trustees; the object of the grant being specifically stated to be for secular education. The late Matthew CampbeU, who was a philanthropist in educational matters, erected a brick school on the site, and it did good service in its time. But when

the Government. took up the cause of Education, Mr Campbell was compensated i'ol his efforts and expenditure, and granted permission to use the building as a Sunday School during his lifetime. Since his death this Sunday School has continued its existence under the guidance of a committee of teachers, who by long usage seem to consider they possess a vested interest in the property. Now, it so happens, that the Education Board wish to build a new school in this locality, and as they are the natural successors of the trustees, they turned their eyes towards this site which is incomparably the best for the purpose in Nelson. But the committee of ladies and pious young men who distil the gospel into the infant mind were not at all willing to vacate the situation; and matters remained quiescent fjr a while. After an interval tenders were called for the erection of a school on another site, and the question ot Campbell's site again cropped up. The old building by this time had got rather dilapidated, and a pratical man was asked to report on its condition. His report was such that the Sunday School at once abandoned it and took their classes elsewhere ; and the Education committee offered them, if they would give up the site, to allow them the use of a room in the Hardy street school. It was a liberal offer, but the Sunday School teachers thought they would improve on it; so they made the following proposition to the Board. That the sum of £2OO cash should be paid to the Sunday School committee and permission also given to erect a building on the site. Now considering that the Board of Education are morally and legally the rightful owners of the property, and intend using it for the very purpose recited in the Crown grant, I can only say that their request is about the coolest piece of brazen impudence I ever heard of. The chairman of the local committee seemed to grasp the situation pretty clearly, for as he remarked, they only had to wait and they would get all they wanted, so it was resolved to delay the construction of the new school till a freeze out takes place, which will not be very long.

Life Assurance.

At the present time there are no less than nine paid agents of Life Insurance institutions canvassing this small town for business. They represent four different associations, and to do any business at all it is absolutely necessary for each to depreciate the merits of all the others. Not that alone, but the various societies seem to have such a superabundance of cash that they not only employ hosts of agents, but also issue printed circulars broadcast throughout the land exposing their rivals' rotten state and their extravagant management. Well I Business is business. The policy-holders, who find the money to carry on the war, are really the interested parties; but have very little to say in the matter. The agents, on the other hand, have a deal to say. What kind of merits are necessary to qualify a man tor an insurance canvasser I am not in a position to determine, but cheek and gift of the gab are two apparently necessary requisites. I have one in my mind's eye at the present moment. In season and out of season, this man (seems to imagine that his infernal blather may be introduced into any conversation and into any company. His utterances he evidently considers are inspired, and his opinions unquestionable. His size protects him to a certain extent, for no man of any feeling would care to kick a fellow who stands about five feet nothing in his boots; but he presumes on the protection his limited inches shield him with to make a most objectionable use of his tongue to vilify all and sundry who venture to differ with him ; and if at any time one happens to question his statements he hauls out of his breast pocket voluminous tables with cabalistic figures, which to the uninitiated may be the Prime Minister's budget, and triumphantly raps them and exclaims, " These are the proofs !" I don't say they are, or are not proofs of the solvency of his, or the bankruptcy of the other shows, but I say that no man but a trained actuary is competent to judge of these figures, and I am certain that this person and others in the same line are neither more nor less than common nuisances to people who have other business to think about.

Municipal.

After a delay of a couple of months the Governor has at last abolished the ward system in the city and the present Council with it. They held a special meeting last night to console one another, and to try and devise some means to spend more money before a new Council was elected, but the attempt was a failure, for even the mayor seems at last to have been converted to my way of thinking, and asked the Council to have a little common decency. The city fathers were evidently depressed at the prospect some of them had of retiring into that private life from which they ought never to have emerged. And the manner of their leaving is not such as they can in the future point back to as something to be proud of. They do not retire by the effluxion of time; they do not resign. They are simply kicked out by. the indignant ratepayers, whose funds they have squandered, and whose interests they have neglected. That is the actual finale of the (Nile)ist conspirators. They finished up their career in a manner worthy of themselves. The question of the sewers cropped up, and they, knowing absolutely nothing of what was necessary, commenced discussing a matter which will require the carefur consideration of practical men, and will eventually cost thousands ot pounds. This they set themselves to work out on their deathbeds. And to show how emi-

nently practical a lot of councillors they ire, they went into the question of excavating the silt out of the sewers and depositing it on the athletic ground on the mud flat. Now here is a sum for some of your sixth standard scholars. If two miles of egg-shaped sewers contain an average depth of five inches of silt, fourteen inches wide, what depth will that silt cover on eight acres of problematical cricket ground ? The new elections will take place in the course of the following month, and there will be some little variation rom our present dulness during the discussion on the past misdeeds of the old Council, and the promises of reform likely to be held forth by the new candidates.

The Midland Bailway. So far as Parliament is concerned the Colony has nobly done all it can do towards the prosecution of the Midland Railway. It now rests with the Company to do their share. By the English mail, which arrived to-day, I read a report of an " interview " between Mr Allan Scott of Christchurch and a reporter of the Pall Mall Gazette. Mr Scott's opinions and asservations read like a romance. After falling foul of Mr Froude, the eminent historian, for having " damned the credit of the Colony," he gets poetical on the grand results to be attained by the settlement of thousands of small capitalists on the lands to be acquired by the Company ; and he tells his listener that the Company are to construct 235 miles of line at a cost of two and three-quarter millions, but only half a-million of capital will be necessary, as the sale of the valuable blocks of land will realise one and a-quarter millions by the time the half million is expended. For a man who has travelled through the country, and then read Mr Allan Scott's allegorical description, the business aspect of it is funny. However, when the capitalists have spent the half million, they will have these magnificent forests, if the former capitalists do not arrive in eager crowds to compete for them, and there are plenty of spare millions at home to finish this track. My opinion is that Allan Scott has mistaken his vocation. He ought to remain in London and aspire to the honour of occupying the chair vacated by the late lamented Baron Munchausen. Korari.

(Continuation of News, see 4th Page.)