THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 285, 3 December 1870, Page 2

THE WEEK.

o With a punctuality that we should all very much like to see imitated by the San 1 Francisco boats, the P. and O. Company's 1 steamer Geelong arrived at Melbourne in ! time to put the New Zealand portion of I the Suez mail ou board the Raugitoto, which sailed from Port Phillip on the 23rd, and arrived at Hokitika on the 28ih, November. Your readers have, no doubt, by this time devourod and digested tlie European news brought on that occasion, so that my duty is completed in simply mentioning the arrival of the mail among the events of the week. Ot course all those who are interested in the Wangapeka — and who is there amongst

us that is not so, either directly or j indirectly — have read the report of Mr. E. H. Davis, *•' Assistant, Geological i Survey, New Zealand " which has during the week been published in the newspapers, and possibly some of the shareholders of the Culliford Company have felt somewhat depressed on learning Mr. Davis's opinion of their property, while ou the other hand the speculators in the Doran reef may be as greatly pleased at the high terms in which he speaks of the gold which " may be seen in almost any piece of stone taken at random off the heap, if carefully examined with a lens." But both the depression and the elevation of spirits that may have been created by Mr. Davis's report will, I think, be allowed to be utterly without foundation when I inform the sanguine or desponding shareholders, as tho case may be, that the "Assistant, Geological Survey" spent but a very short time at the Waugapeka, and that the report whicli has flown so glibly from his pen is the result of less than twenty-four hours' observation of the country of which he professes to give an account. Can it be possible that the district to which we are looking to produce such a revolution in the state of affairs in Nelson is of so limited an extent, ard of so uninteresting a character that it can be "done" by one of Dr. Hector's assistants in a few hours ? And yet ifc seems that such is the case, aud that those who have hitherto been of opinion that our boasted reefs in the Waugapeka extended over a considerable breadth of country, and would require a geologist to spend at least a week there before he could profess to form anything like a correct idea of their auriferous qualities, have either been greatly mistaken with regard to the mineral wealth of that district, or have vastly uuderrated the activity and ability of those officers of the Government whose duty it is to enlighten the people on the geological formation of the land in which they live. When I reflect that a sm-ill portion of one day spent ou a goldfield has enabled Mr Davis to produce such a report as that I now have before me, I feel perfectly amazed that a gracious Providence should have bestowed upon any one man such talent, and such acute powers of perception, aud whenever I see another document sinned "E. H. Davis, Geological Survey Office, Wellington," I shall read it with the greatest avidity as emanating from the pen of one of the shrewdest aud quickestsighted geological assistants that ever visited and pronounced an opinion on a quartz reef. The cricket fever to which I alluded in my last, is still raging, but, as I then stated, it takes a very uncertain and intermittent form, occasionally breaking out with tremendous force for one day, and then completely subsiding for weeks together. Iu other and plainer words, our players here, or at all events, the majority of them, are not cricketers at heart. They like a match with another club, with all its attendant excitement, but they don't care sufficiently for the game to devote their time to practice. If auy of them imagine I am exaggerating in making this assertion, I ask them to think over last Thursday's exhibition, and if they do not fully endorse what I say, I am willing to admit that I know nothing of the noble old game. There is sufficient material of the right sort in the place to turn out a most creditable club, and if they will only practise, they can go over to Wellington in a short time, and give their late conquerors as handsome a "dressing down " as they could possibly wish for, but unless they do so, they had far better stay at home. There was one feature in the game of Thursday last which was quite new to me, and, from what I can hear, to a great many others as well, consequently I think it deserving of mention here. I refer to the appearrance at the wicket of one of the principal Nelaou players with a pipe io his mouth. Now if it is the correct thing for the batsmen to smoke when on duty, ifc is equally allowable for the bowlers and fielders to do the same, but it seem3 to me that the thirteen meu who are required to be on a cricket field, with pipes in their mouths, and blowiug clouds of smoke, would pivseut such a picture as one could hardly expect to see out of the pages of Punch. Still, originality possesses certain merits, and ifc may possibly afford us some slight consolatiou after our beating to reflect that, if we could not show the Wellington men how to field, we can at least boast of having introduced one

decided novelty into the game, although I have some doubts wheather our late visitors are not too much of cricketers to follow the example set them on the Nelson grouud. Our two principal mining companies, the Perseverance and the Culliford, have held meetings during the week ; at the former, a series of resolutions were adopted, the workability of which remains to be proved, and at the latter everything passed off in the most amicable manner, the directors' report and statement of accouuts being adopted almost without discussion. At Stoke, on Wednesday, an ordination was held by the Bishop of the diocese, when the Rev. Alexander Chalmers Soutar, a member of the Glasgow University, aud lately Presbyterian minister to lhe troops at Gosporfc, was admitted into Deacon's orders in the Church of England . I commenced my last letter with a reference to the weather ; I shall close it this week with the same subject, but without enlarging ou it in the slightest degree. If any of my readers think I make too much of this topic, I merely ask them to stroll round their g!irde_s and contrast their appearance at the present time with what it was a fortuight ago. F.