The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1868.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 303, 23 December 1868, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1868.

A letter signed 'Elector' appe.redin onr columns yesterday whicli had for its objpct to suggest that Mr Shephard had evinced a willingness to take office under Government. In reference to this communication we are nuthorised to state that no application of the nature referred to was ever made by that gentleman, or by others at his request. It is quite true that' when the proposition to appoint a Resident Magistrate for the Waimea was brought under the consideration of the Government, Mr Shephani's name was mentioned as being the most eligible person in the district for the office, provided he would accept it, but this was done without the slightest communication taking place on the subject between Mr Shephard and the parties with whom the suggestion originated. Our authority for this statement, whose word is unimpeachable, adds that of his own personal knowledge when a vacancy occurred in an ofiice of high responsibility in this city sonitt months ago, it was intimated to Mr Shephard that a personal application would in nil probability, insure his appointment to it, but that gentleman declined to avail himself of the h'nt, asserting that he deemed it inconsistent to accept office from the hands of a Minister of ■whose re-election for the City he even then contemplated opposing. We do not constitute ourselves the champion cf either candidate, but we readily insert this contradiction of an assertion whi cii Mr Shephaid's friends conceive might, if unanswered, inflict some injury upon his interests. Di Hector, the Government Geologist, having kindly acceded to a request made to him by the President and Committee of the Nelson Institute that he should deliver a lecture on his favorite science during his present visit to Nelson, a large and highly respectable audience assembled last night at the Provincial Hall to listen to Dr Hector's remarks on the geology of the colony and of this province especially. The lecturer, ar-ocunpanied by the Committee of the Institute, having entered the Hall, his Honor the Superintendent introduced Dr Hector, who in his preliminary remarks referred to the impossibility of doing justice to fo extensive a subject as the gc-oiogy of the colony in a single lecture, j and alluded to the additional disadvantage under which he labored from the fact of his being wholly unprovided with notes or memoranda for Ids guidance. The lecturer, a r tpr adverting to (lie geological researches of Von Hochstetter, Dr Haa-=t, and himself in this colony, gave a definition of geology, explaining that the earth was not spheric*-- 1 but spheroid iv form, and giving the various theories to account for the corrugations which appear on its surface. Much interest attached to Dr Hector's allusion j to the great tidal wave of the 15t.h of August hist, whioh he characterised as having travelled further than any previously koo-vn visitation of the same nature, and -which he attributed to a rupture of the earth-crust, in one of the troughs on its surface, somewhere in the Pacific, caused by au irruption of sea water generating steam and causing au explosion. The learned lecturer then at very considerable length classified tho various geological formations of which the colony was composed, describing New Zealand as a mass of sunken mountains, whose bases were below the water-line of the ocean, and once constituting a portion of an immense continental area. Dr Hector expressed his regret that time would not permit him to give a sketch of the various eruptive rocks of the colony, which were of the greatest economic value, and concluded his lecture, which displayed a research and ability to which we cannot give even scant justice, with an appeal to the audience and to the people of Nelson generally, in behalf of the efforts that have lately been made to extend the operations of the New Zealand Institute, stating that an Act for thia purpose had been passed during the last session of Parliament, and tbat kindred associations, affiliated to the Institute, had been already founded ia Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, ancl Ho- • kitiko, for tho purpose of obtaining and forwarding to the competeht authorities any scientific information of interest in their respective provinces. Rich and vailed as Nelson was ia her mineral

resources, it was certainly incumbent on her people that they should not be slow to secoud this importaut work, which, after expressing his thanks for the reception which had been accorded to his lecture, he recommended to their notice, and sat down amidst much cheering. The lecture, though necessarily at times somewhat beyond the comprehensiou of the uninitiated, was listened to throughout most attentively. The Right ilev. Bishop Suter, alluding in a pleasaut speech to tbe interesting scientific associations with which Dr Hector's remarks would henceforth invest many an otherwise dreary locality through which his Lordship and others had at times to travel, conveyed the thanks of the meeting for the gratification and information tbat had been afforded them that evening which being acknowledged by Dr Hector, the proceedings terminated.