The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1871.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 27, 1 February 1871, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1871.

To-day Nelson celebrates her 29th anniversary, and there are many whose thoughts will on this annual holiday travel back over the years that have intervened since the first band of colonists set foot on the shores of Blind Bay, and they will almost involuntarily contrast the present state of the province with what it was when first they cast eyes on the land which was to b*e their future home. Fern, flax, and manuka were then' the most prominent objects where now we have fine, broad, well-kept streets, and handsome substantial buildings, and many of those who were "present at the gathering in the Botanical Garden Reserve to-day will well remember the difficulties they had experienced in penetrating the dense bush that, at that time existed on the ground which, at the present moment is a scene of gaiety and enjoyment. The memory need not go so far back as twenty-nine years to recall the state of the track into the Waimea, where now there exists a road, than which there is none better in the whole of New Zealand, and we, whose Nelson experience does not extend over more than 20 years, can vividly call to mind the time when bullock drays, with what in these days would be considered but very light loads, were embedded in the mud up to the axles on what was then known as Greig's Hill, but the men who were in charge of those vehicles were but typical of the settlerswho have since dotted the wilderness of the Waimea plain with fruitful farms, and smiling homesteads, in that they were not to be subdued by the first impediments, however serious they might have been, that met them in the way, but manfully put their shoulders to the wheel and trusted to their own exertions to extricate themselves from the difficult position in which they were from time to time placed. We question whether anything affords greater proof of the advance that has been made in civilization in this Province, than the number of school-houses that are. to be found within a radius of twenty miles from the town, thus showing that the attention of the earlier settlers was not entirely devoted to the accumulation of material wealth alone, out that they kept in view the mental culture of those who were to follow them, and upon whom was one day to devolve the responsibility of governing the country that had been reclaimed from its wild state by their fathers. Io ...'npipart^of the colony has greater attention. / been paid to ' the education .of. the youDg than in and we may safely reaiiassured that the efforts of our ; early, v-^legislators in this direction will one day ;/bew good fruit,, and that kelson will :> . mff ier have cause to regret that; those who i vwere the pioneers of the province mi- ; i ■-■■stitute3 that system of education of which . >; ;^^»elall so justly proud, and "which V ■, Jsp%ea of in such high terms ©f praise-in' :^; ; |«]i^ili)B -other, parts of Ne^ Zealand.,' ; ,<s£/ |;fe||iit^ '%erey • •'m«n^hp^ Pf|||ijl(^ i^melaiac^

fatal to so many valuable lives in this colony. The gloom that was" cast over our little community when the news arrived that he had lost his life in crossing the Wairau River, was one of those events that is not yet forgotten by those who knew and consequently respected him. But grave reflections of this kind are scarcely adapted to a day on which the whole province is keepiDg holiday, although there must necessarily be a tinge of sadness in looking back over so long a vista of years as that which has elapsed since 1841, for those who indulge in a retrospect of this kind cannot but call to mind the well-known faces that are missing from our midst, nor can they refrain from wishing — however futile such a wish may be, — that those whom they had loved and respected, could be among them once more on au occasion of merrymakiog like the present. It is customary on the return of the birthday of an individual to wish him many happy retuns of the day, and it will not be out of place if we offer the same kind wish to those who on this day celebrate the anniversary of the Province of Nelson.