1 x 2 x 3 x 17 x 24=

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 130, 4 June 1870, Page 2

1 x 2 x 3 x 17 x 24=

So complicate! a problem is beyond my powers of solution, and 1 leave the blank to be filled by some more accomplished mathematician, say Mr Gibbs, but I am a little at a loss to understand in what denomination the product will be expressed, that is to say, when you multiply clauses by amendments, members, and speeches, whether the result wiil be speeches, members, amendments, or clauses; however it wili give the outside public just as lucid an idea <>f what took place in the Hall, as they have of the distance of a star from the earth when you tell them that it is 900,000,000 miles off. There was a great deal of sparring carried on about one of the clauses of the Bill; Mr. Luckie said there ought to be a goldfields representative, but that he didn't know what he meant by the expression, however it was the business of a legal adviser to find out what people meant Avhen they spoke ambiguously, to which the Provincial Solicitor replied that it wasn't part of his business to fiud words to express Mr. Luckie's meaning, and if he couldn't explain what he meant, that it couldn't be put in the Bill, and at last everybody got so confoued over this " You're another " sort of argument that nobody could understand what anybody meant, and then Mr. Reid, who had been biting his fingers for a long time, got up in a great rage and said that he was losing his temper over so much talking and noise, a.nd that he was beginning to feel like a porcupine — what funny fellows these West Coast members are, they all like to have some nickname — and I believe he was just to going parody Byron's lines and say — " -These cursed dins, They surely were invented for our sins, Rendering me like a porcupine Not to be rashly touched." — when Mr. Luckie and the Provincial Solicitor found out what they meant and so the din was stopped. Then they got into a terrible muddle over one of the clauses, which said how many Provincial Councillors were to be in the Executive, or how many Executive Counoillors were to be in the Council, I never could find out which it was, aud the members walked about and got excited, land every one had different opinions about it,.

until at last Mr. Macmahon proposed that, they should adjourn for the purpose of having a sleep, and this seemed to waken them up, and at last they agreed whatjthey should do, and so ended this night. On Wednesday there was- a .great display of oratory on the question of reading the Executive Bill the third time, but the crowning speech was made by Mr. Luckie in reply. Anyone who, like my shadowy self, has been in the habit of* constantly attending at the Hall, will have perceived that if you want to " rile" Mr. Luckie you have only to insinuate in the mildest and most gentlemanly form, that he has a spite against the Superintendent. . The British Lion, on such an assertion being made, is fairly roused, and he thunders forth sentence after sentence of wrathful declamation upon the head of the hapless offender. But if, when such an accusation is actually made he becomes grand in his Oratory, he is superb, sublime, overpowering, when nobody has even hinted at such a thing. This is quite a new phase in his character, and was exhibited for the first time on Wednesday last, when he said that he had walked out of the House on the previous evening, as he did not wish to vote against the unauthorised expenditure, lest any of his good-natured friends should accuse him of vindictiveness. Then it was that he burst into a fit of eloquence, and spoke of the utter scorn and fiery indignation with which he treated such insinuations — which had never been made, mind you — and in a peroration worthy of Demosthenes, ne concluded with these words : — "No, Sir, my hands are clean, and I wish the same could be said of every Government Officer." I once heard a story about Lord Brougham, which, for want of something better to do, I will tell you. It was in the old days, when he was going to contest a seat in Yorkshire, and he had, of course, to travel by coach. Now we all know that the old coaches were not . famed for cleanliness, and as Lord Brougham arrived at his destination only just in time to mount the hustings, he was unable to attend to his toilet. He made his speech, indignantly repudiated some accusation which had been brought against him, and concluded, like orators of a later . date, by thrusting out his hands and exclaiming, "Thank God my hands are clean." A roar of laughter from the mob below induced him to look at his hands, which to his horror he saw were perfectly black, the result of his coach travelling. Awkward for Lord Brougham, wasn't it ? The next day's performance commenced with a solo from Mr: C. Kelling, who made a pathetic appeal to the Council generally, to tell him what had become of the Country Roads Bill — Oh ! where, and oh where is the Country Roads Bill gone — This was the burden of his song, but, geting no answer to his question, he subsided, and made way for Mr. Reid, who wanted to get compensation for the damage the people of Westport had sustained from the unruly conduct of the South Pacific Ocean, in washing away their town sections. I don't like to joke on serious subjects, but wouldn.t it be better to go to head quarters at once, and appeal to Davy Jones to replace the missing property from his well stored locker ? After this was over there was a discussion about the toll gate, which would have been very uninteresting but that it led to a most unexpected, denouement. On a division being taken, the Kelling Brothers voted on the same side for the first time this session ! But last night was wit' out doubt the night of the season. Shortly after the Council met Mr. Luckie rose, and with shivering nervousness, and bashful modesty revealed the fact that he had been sent for by the Superintendent to be consulted as to the constitution of the new Executive, and that he had recommmended so and so, to which the Superintendent had at once consented. And whenhe had finished I looked down from my post of observation and I could see written on the countenances of some of those whose names were not written, on the golden scroll, envy, and hatred, and malice, and uncharitableness ; and looking forward a few, a very few, years my prophetic 6oul could see eighteen men, each of whose hands was raised against his neighbor, fighting and struggling for the sweets of office, while outside was a neglected crowd eagerly waiting to see what benefits they were to derive from the deliberations of their legislators. And then in my trance I heard a voice saying, "This night has the first nail in the coffin of Provincial Institutions in Nelson been driven well home." At the close of the evening there was a scene occasioned by certain personal allusions made by Mr. O'Conor, who was stung by an accusation brought against him by Mr Donne of foisting an unsanctioned Committee report on the Council, but although I can appreciate a bit of fun as well as anybody, and although I like to make my little joke out of some of the numerous absurdities that must necessarily arise where a score of men are gathered together, yet I confess that coarse personalities have no attractions for me. If I wanted to hear them I should go to some pot house. Was it ominous, that the evening on which the system of Responsible Government was inaugurated in the Provincial Council should be marked by an occurrence calculated to lower that body in the estimation of the people ? For remainder of News see Fourth page