Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY. 10, 1871.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 8, 10 January 1871, Page 2

Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JANUARY. 10, 1871.

We spent a very pleasant, and not altogether unprofitable , couple of hours at Wakapuaka last night. Pleasant, in that it. was highly gratifyiug to find what an interest is taken in the government of the country by the inhabitants of that district, a_H profitable, because we were there imbued — imbibed, Mr. Wastney would call it — with some novel and startling ideas in connection with the political, state aud prospects of the country. Thejneeting commenced pleasantly enough; Some difference of opinion . having arisen between the -two' conveners 1 ' of it as to •whether the one had permission to attach the signature of the other to the advertisement. Mr. Wastney made ia .cejjtiun statement, for which we refer our readerjs to the. {report of the .; meeting, where they will'also findvthat Mr. C&iiins took ah' entirely different -view of .the facts from that entertained," 'by* his co-cohveaer. This '*<<■ .; • -X- ' .'*! its' -".' *' ■ •.' '' ■ -a ■ Sittjle prelude, being, over, Mr. Wastney s proceeded tto ; give i/utteranice-' to Tthe thoughts: -that burned witl&rhiin on. ibe presen t political state of the 'colony^and. the -most .advisable: lioa' ,'bf pbliey toffee" purftiied' for the futur^anjS^&s the pr^glei spok;e, all -Wakapuaka sat by ,oiid :lis^, tOTea'in ; _oiemn* silence! !'!'*. > Iffe '.ncTt ' ! 4li • Wafea|»,ualf a r ;-k for~L thißre was one * Ituirdy '

elector, who was addressed by those who bad the privilege of being intimately, acquainted with him as " Joe,'' and, by the chairman, as*. IV! r. Bungate, who, every now and then, insisted upou giving expression-* to views that were entirely at variance with* those of Mr. "Wastney. But this is a digression. Mr.'---.Wastney'*-; speech. was principally devoted" to reading, from a list which he held in -his hand, the acts of tha__,present Ministry since they took office, all .'of which were referred to in a few words of commeuc'ation, and ultimately pronounced very good. There was a' degree of monotony about this unmitigated" 'praise that became a' little wearisome, **-aud, whether -it was: owing to tho somewj^aj, dreary allusions made by the speaker to what took place six' or Sevt-n and twenty years ago, when Mr. Jollie sold his oats at 3s. 6il. a bushel' paid his labourers half-a-crown a-day, aud everybody was happy, or whether ifc arose from the juvenile freshness that pervaded the whole speech, we cannot now say, but certain it is, that we wer.e insensibly carried back in imagination to the days of our boyhood, and *."vi*fjd recollections were called up of one particular game, the principal feature of which consisted of one of tbe merry group of children being perched up on an elevated seat, .and having by his sid*j a heap of articles of every description, which he took up one by one, saying as he did so, "Here's a thing and a very, pretty-thing." So was it with Mr. Wastney last night, as he dived every now and then, into his budget of Mini&tc-rial measures, pulling now one, and now another of them out, and speaking of them in words that were tantamount to "Here's a scheme and a very pretty scheme," or '* Here's an Act and a very nice Act." But this, as we have said, was repeated a little too often, aud occasionally we really felt iudebted to **' Joe," if he will allow us to speak of him in so familiar a manner, for breaking in upon the monotony .of the proceedings. The remedies proposed by Mr. Wastney for bettering the, state' of things in New Zealand are few and simple. They consist principally of the abolition of all Customs duties, except on a very few articles, and the raising of revenue by a . Property and Income Tax, the operations of which are to extend to the -foreign; money lender. In this, we think that, Mr. Wastney allowed his honesty to get the better of his ordinary astuteness. He should have waited before expressing himself so plainly on this "subject until the much talked-of loan had bean extracted from the pockets of the English capitalists, for, should the news go home to them that, a convener of meetings, and a speaker of speeches, who possesses such influence., as \ does Mr. Wastney, proposes -to deduct, a certain portion of their interest before handing ifc over to them, -ifc might: have the effect of making them a little shy in negotiating a • loan .for. New- Zealand. l There were. a variety of: subjects; touched : upon by Mr. Wastney, but we have not space to refer to them all here,'- however* after all we, 'had ..heard,, we were not . iv the -least surprised to find him stating his opinion before the meeting broke up that it was far better to' pay. the Maoris' to keep them quiet than to pay men to fight them. Possibly it had escaped Mr. Wastney's memory that the system of bribing and "petting afid coaxing [ tha natives had been tried before and proved a vast, and expensive failure. - Mr. Wastney having, resumed bis seat, ' Mr. Collins rose, but, unfortunately for the people of* Wakapuaka, 'his*' views On colonial politics were~in direct antagonism to thdse of' the 'gentleman .whose nanje api pears,; Jn the advertisement- in connection !with;:his own, so- that* those who- were ; invited to expiress ""an opinion as to the 'line of policy,' it "is advisable, to support for the future," were a little at a loss to know what advice they- should tender to •the colonial legislature. " This, i^g'-'tp/ be j regretted, ai/on expression of ppinitfn'frotn >Wakapuak:a might ham ithe wholelfutu're of the colony, anddt must jbave been extremely, pn,iji<_4 to Mr. Wastney to' -find** that^his' praiseworthy efforts to obtain that '^opinion wei*e- HW : * Entirely, barren of results, and that the resolution;, jwhi'clv had 7 nd; : (doubt' cost hira^niufih^atis:-!! jio^-^laaugbtg;^ !for^p£ten, x and -unheeded by . thiet cruel artel lunaympaih^

Bankruptcy." — The Gazette of this* morning contains a notification that Michael Billows, of Neisou, mariuer, 'has this day. filed his schedule. Sudden Death at Blenheim.— We regret very much to learn that Mr. John Kissling, the. manager of the Bank of New Zealand at Blenheim, died suddenly., tiiis ; 'morning. / We have not yet heard the cause of. his death. Foot Race.. — The , Examiner of this morning corrects a paragraph which appeared ih our columns last night rela-tive-to a race io be run between, Bolton arid Twoliill. Our information was ol>ta,Ln.ed. .rq.n the Greymouth Star, in one of the latest numbers of which appear two advertisements, one. signed by, Bolton as the. challenger, and the other "fyy* Twohill as the acceptor. But those are days when implicit reliance is not to be placed upon tho signatures appended to advertisements. Lunatic Asylum. — Yesterday. Messrs'. Brind and Chisholm erected a horizontal bar in the grounds of the.Luuatic Asylum:, where they went through some of ihe exercises, much to the amusemeut of the patients both at the Hospital and. Asylum, iis well as of the p-issers-by on Waimearoad. One of the inmates of the Asylum who plays the bagpipes, brought out his instrument, and dancing was immediately entered into with great spirit, especially by one of tho number who delights in beiug styled his Royal Highness. r V'* m^ rar '^* imj '^ 1 rMM*--r.n*r.aiK**m*£m.Tn -I rif .■■^■«rmTT"f_a_^-__Q_P_-_a__M_.