The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1871.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 81, 6 April 1871, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1871.

To-morrow being Good Friday, there will be no publication of the Evening Mail. All Saints' Church. — Morning and evening services will be held iv this churc-fr to-morrow, aud the Holy Communion administer.cd after the morning serrice. Easter Holidays. — The banks will be closed for the whole day on Easter Monday, and ou the following Tuesday aud Wednesday, being the race days, from 11 a.m. Christ Church. — We are requested to state that the usua' Passion Week services will be held at Chrisf, Church at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Good Friday, and at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The festival of Easter will be celebrated on Suuday next by full choral services, and the Holy CommuDion will be administered on that day at 8 a.m., as well as after the morning service. Nelson Scientific Association. — At the monthly meeting last evening, Dr. Irvine in the chair, one new member' was elected. Mr. Kobert Lee, Head Master of the Bishop's School, read his continuation paper on the History of Astronomical Science, subject-" Newton and his v T_ imes," which was illustrated by several diagrams. A discussion on several subjects of interest concluded the business of the evening. Land Transfer Act. — The framers of this Act^jare surely responsible for the effect it appears to have had upon the brain of one of our northern contemporaries. The Taranaki Herald thus raves ou the subject : — " When the day arrives, as surely come it will, when New Zealand shall be a great, prosperous, and independent nation ; when her flag shall be an emblem of national might and power, and her coin an equivalent of commercial value; when every wind wafts from shores on either of he\coasts ships freighted with commodities \{ her own producing ; and when the great, bugbear of all — the native difficulty — shall have been so arranged that either the aboriginal inhabitants of this island shall be living in peace and plenty amongst U3, or else 03 found wandering, a few gaunt barbarians, on some desol&te range, existing there only to curse the day when they dared again to interfere with us ; then the historian who narrates her rise and progress will say that there was no measure which more conduced to the social advancement and solid improvement of the people than the statute which enabled every unit of them easily to acquire a portion of the soil of the country, and, readily and cheaply, when the occasionWose, to transfer it." The Fire at Blenheim. — Wa are indebted to the courtesy of the editor of the Evening Herald for a slip containing the following account of the late fire at Blenheim : — A most destructive fire occurred at the stores of Mr. Henry Dodson, in Alfred-street, between 12 and 1 o'clock this morning, by which both his large stores were burned to the grouud. The Fire Brigade turned out in force, but their efforts were unavailing. In about twenty minutes, all hopes of saving the building were at an end, and every exertion was then made to save what goods could be got at ; but the heat was so great that but very little was saved. The next effort was to remove all the goods out from Mr. Kitchen's saddlery store, Mr. Tuemrael's, Mr. Avery's, and Mr. Elbeck'e,

Fortunately, however, the exertions made by several persons, by passing buckets of water up on to the roof, prevented the fire from spreading. The Presbyterian Church had a very narrow escape also, the roof having caught fire, but water was soon passed up, and tho fire extinguished. The loss to Mr. Dodson will be very considerable, as he had a large quantity of this season's hops just stored. We are informed that Mr. Dodsoa was only insured for £1,500. As yet there is no knowing how the fire originated, but it is supposed to have broken out among the'flax and wool in the large wool store. The sparks from the fire were carried over the river, aud iguited some shavings close to the residence of Mr. Caleb Davies, and had it not been discovered in lime, nothing could have saved his premises. Australian versus New Zealand Timber. — A great outcry has been made in Canterbury against the Provincial Government on account of their having sent to Australia for sleepers for their railways in preference to using that which is to be obtained within their own province. A considerable amount of political capital is made out of this by the Lyttellon Times which introduces somewhat unnecessarily, as it appears to us, tiie question of protection and free trade to such an extent as to render it doubtful whether the object of ils article on the subject is to advance its own views on this theme, or to prove that Ne'V Zealaud timber is sufficiently durable for such purposes as it is required in Canterbury. On this head we in Nelson — to whom, by the way, the question is referred as having had some experience in these matters — can afford some valuable information. It is now nearly ten years since the Dun Mountain railway was constructed, and, with the idea that the question might be satisfactorily decided by the sleepiug witnesses that are to be found in our streets, we have brought our pocket knife into requisition for the purpose of extracting from them such evidence as they are able to afford on a matter that has assumed .s^ much importance in a sister province. The result of our examination is, we are bound to say, decidedly in favor of our own colonialgrown timber, for the birch sleepers on which tha rails are laid, such of them at least as weTiave appealed to, aud we have made no selection but fairly tried them in various places, show but very small signs of decay excepting where the sap wood had not been entirely cleared away prior to their being laid down; on the contrary, the^, display what Milton would have caHed 4 *' celestial rosy red " that would delighf the hearts of those who, iv Canterburyj, are advocating the claims of New Zealand timber. We are not sufficiently well- acquainted with the geography of the Canterbury province to know where the Oxford bush, of which such frequent mention is made in the article before us, is situated, but if it be anywhere within easy distance of the proposed line of railway, we have no doubt that the saving effected by sending to the Swan River for sleepers will prove to be purely imaginary, that is, of course, provided that the timber to be found there is equal in quality to that which has been exposed to so fair a test in Nelson. We caunofc agree with our Canterbury contemporary in the ultra-protectionist views he entertains, but, at the same time, it appears to us that to send to Australia for that which can be obtained in New Zealand of excellent quality, and in. any quantity, is a cruel and unnecessary expedient for any Government, whether Provincial or General, to resort to. It is just possible that some people have formed their opinion of birch timber, from the telegraph posts that were at one time erected in this island, but it must be remembered that they were mere saplings which no farmer possessed of ordinary judgment would have used for a fence round one of his paddocks. Every one who had had the slightest experience in such matters, know perfectly well at the time they were erected that it was impossible they could last more than three years At the very outside, therefore to

condemn, good, sound, honest, birch wood merely because they realised the expectations of all who knew anything of the matter would be exceedingly unfair to the produce of our New Zealand forests. Only a small quantity has, as yet, been ordered by the Canterbury Government, and it is to be hoped that, before discarding home, in favor of foreign, produce, they will take the matter into re-consideration. This is a question that affects not only Canterbury, but the whole colony, for if an extensive system of railways is to be commenced, it is exceedingly undesirable that the fashion should be set by a large and influential province like Canterbury of sending out of the colony for that which is to be found here in abundance.