The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1868.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 94, 22 April 1868, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 1868.

The most bigotted opponent of our present Government will hardly veuture to affirm that its head mauifests any undue partiality for that venerable tradition, more honored in the breach than the observance, which requires that a ' Speech, from the Throne ** shall be constituted of a string of ungrammatical platitudes, devised with an especial view to the illustration of Talleyrand's celebrated apothegm that lauguage was invented for the purpose of concealing our thoughts, and intended to convey the least possible meaning in the smallest possible number of words. The Address, delivered yesterday by his Honor the Superintendent, at the ceremony which marked the inauguration of the 18th session of the Nelson Provincial Council was, at all events, worded very intelligibly, was certainly by no means scant in its proportions, and, moreover, in many respects afforded indisputable grounds for congratulation and hopeful anticipation.

Passing over the inauguration of the Nelson Waterworks, an achievement which would alone suffice to signalize the present regime, and to which the Superintendent refers with very natural feelings of satisfaction, and the announcement that the lease of the Grey Coalmine, that fertile and most reasonable source of past dissatisfaction, had been cancelled, and a fresh source of wealth thereby again rendered available by the province, with the no less consolatory assurance that the excessive expenditure hitherto required on the West Coast Goldfields was no longer likely to constitute an incubus upon the Estimates, it is impossible not to perceive that the general tone of the Address is certainly ' couleur de rose,' and not unjustifiably so. There is, however, one paragraph we would not unwillingly pass unnoti ced. We refer to the proposition for the immediate construction of a dry dock in this harbor, a work which, his Honor assures the Council, can be carried out from funds at their command, without incurring debt or liability. It is utterly unnecessary to remind our readers that this proposition is really of no recent date, for the Council so far back as 1861 passed an Act guaranteeing interest ou £10,000, to "be expended in erecting a patent slip, or in constructing a dry dock in Nelson, which, however, was permitted to lapse, or that our present Superintendent in the following year made another fruitless attempt to bring the subject before the Council. It is needless to recur to the various influences which have since prevented tho realisation of this project. Suffice it to say that its great importance to this community has now received full and general recognition, for we believe that but one opinion prevails as to the immense benefits which a work of this nature would confer upon this city, and that very few indeed will be found to dissent from the opinion expressed by the Superintendent, that there is no purpose to which the sum required for the construction of a dry dock could be devoted with so much general advantage

to the community,

ludepeudettly of the prestige and commercial preeminence over others ports which Nelson would thus obtain, and of the revenue accruing from its use, not ouly by steamers, but also by merchant ships, whalers, &c, it must be remembered that while these repairs are going on, money must be dis-

bursed both for necessaries and luxuries, and this expenditure would exercise a most beneficial influence upon the commercial community of this city. The proposition will, doubtless, shortly be brought under the notice of the Council, and we cau entertain no fears that a work which it is admitted, if pi operly managed, cannot but prove highly reproductive, which would give life, activity, aud employment to the community, and return a tenfold interest, will receive most favorable consideration at their hands.