The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1871.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 18, 21 January 1871, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1871.

Melanesian Mission. — The annual collection for this mission will be made at Christ Church to-morrow morning. Election Intelligence. — Mr. Stafford has been elected without opposition for the district of Timaru. Perseverance Company. — We under staud that Mr. H. E. Curtis has resigned the legal managership of the Perseverance Gold-mining Company. Waimea Volunteers . — A protest lodged by the Waimea Volunteers against being compelled to fire for the choice of representatives at the City Butts, has been allowed at the Defence Office, aud permission granted them to compete again on their own ground. The firing will take place ou Monday next. Excursion Trip. — The pleasure trip advertised by the Taranaki for to-morrow, is likely to prove a great success, as large numbers of Nelson citizens propose to take advantage of such an opportunity of visiting Wellington during its greatest holiday in the year. Minstrels, cricketers, and sailors, are all to be represented in the general exodus which is to take place to-morrow morning. We observe that the Auckland medical men are differing in opinion as to whether or no Asiatic cholera is now present iv Auckland. The disease, whatever it may be, is universally attributed to defective drainage. Considerable doubt seems to exist as to whether the system of voting by ballot prescribed by the act of last session, really secures to the electors the privilege of secret voting. Many people labor under the idea that there are -' means provided for tracing the votes, 'anti'that little difficulty will be found in discovering how each man votes. This is not so. Immediately the votes are counted the papers are placed under official seal, which can only be broken by order of the Assembly io case of a return being petitioned against on the ground of personation, or thiogs of that kind. Under such circumstances it i 3 possible to trace any. disputed vote, but the process is by no means a simple one, and would take too much time to render it possible for the Eeturning Officer to bunt up any vote before sealing^, his papers.. As. an additional security, however,, the Returning Officer, and everyone else employed officially in the booths are sworn to secrecy. Electors may therefore go the ballot-box with the full assurance thai; tiie way in which they vote wiß not bekDown, unless they themselves chaose to tell it. • « It seems rather! a serious thiog 'that notwithstanding t|e apparent constant accumulation of fthe jyiblic business necessitating the f'&a^fntment of fresh officers, yet whenjß^one or two of those apparently indiajlfiSFble officers are away, the buainess^TtheJcoantry goes on just as well jjjimout th|m as with them. "No man in the Colonyj 1 has of late been more indispensible than|t,he Colonial Treasurer ; he was everywhere, and had a hand in every department of the Government service. He seemed indeed, the mainspring of the wkole machine, without which it must infallibly stop ; and yet, lo ! he suddenly starts \>ff on a self-appointed mission to America and Europe, and the whole affuir goes on as well without him as with him. Findi g that the Government of the count y does not collapse during his temporal y absence, would it, not be well totryfhow long we could do without him; land, finding no bad results, extend tffe j^ffr pf deporting Messrs. Sewell andjyJCT^ and any other supernumerary Minster we may have on hand ? TlveijpHJalaffies would perhaps be found Uj&eraT now * that the Banks have stopped advances to the Government. — Post - } Miss Alice Featheeston, fifth daughter of his Honor the Superintendent, was married to Mr. Charles Johnston this, morning.* The bride, robed in a maghifi-;. cent white moire, trimmed with point laoe, was led in by her spouse elect. The bridesmaids, eight in number, dressed in white tarlatan, trimmed in blue ribbons,with flowing veils fasteued to the hair, followed in procession. The bride was supported on the right by her father, and no less than four groomsmen waited upon the happy man, with envy and pleasure. The Rejv. Father Petit Jean, after a short address, tied the knot in St.- Mary's Cathe-, dral. Some sweetly pretty children, relatives of the bridegoom, strewed flowers ou the ground, and the party Lurried off to St. Paul's Cathedral, where the pleasure of the ladies was prolonged by a new ceremony, and a fresh crowd of smilling people. " Happy is the bride whom the sun shines on," fiays the ol& r proverb;- and if there is any*' truth in the ; saying, the; fair young bride must have experienced a

double share of happiness, for the sun shone out in unusual brilliancy as if to do her speceial honor. People have talked a good deal about this being a new era in our history — judging from the number of weddings that have taken place lately it must be the era of the rising generation — Post.