THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 82, 8 April 1871, Page 2

THE WEE K.

Retrograding. There is something exceedingly unpleasant about the verylook of this word, but it becomes still more disagreeable when its application is brought home to our doors, as it has been this week by the revelations of the census. Here is a young colony, some 30 years of age, that apparently possesses everything that can be desired by settlers in a new country, and yet we find that, within the small space of three years, the population of one of its first-formed towns has actually decreased. I should like casually to remark here on the immense aosu>dity of applying the term " city " to this, or any o ther town in New Zealand. That a good sized village of some five or six thousand inhabitants should/be dignified with the appellation of a " city," is so utterly ridi-\ culous that, for my own part, I confess that I never make use of the word — as one is occasionally compelled to do officially— without a disagreeable feeling that I am, what is commonly called, making a fool of myself. Why shouldn't we all of us agree, to talk reasonably when we have occasion to speak of the town of Nelson? We are but frogs, and we know it ; why then should we try to make believe that we are oxen ? But all this is by way of parenthesis ; when one has a j <JS«flgreeable subject to speak or to write

upon, there is a hesitation, I suppose a natural one, iv coming to the point at once, and something of this kind has, I imagine, led me from the subject of retrogression to that of nomenclature. But there still remains the unpleasant fact — fence with it as we may — that Nelson is gradually going backwards, and that she has of late lost some of the most valuable class of her population, for there is no doubt that the reduction has been caused by adults leaving her shores. That a very large addition is annually made to our numbers by births is beyond all question, we require no census to teach us that ; a walk through the streets at the hours of twelve aod four, when the school children are released from their labors, is quite sufficient to convince the most sceptical on that head ; but even should any doubts still remain after the ocular demonstration thus afforded, a glance at that portion of the monthly summaries of news which is devoted to the domestic intelligence which a Sau Francisco paper classifies under the heads of "The/Cradle," " The Altar," and "The Tomb," at once shows that natural causes are not at work to lessen our numbers, as the demand created for cradles is far in excess of that for coffins. It is then perfectly evident that our reduced numbers are the result of emigration from our shores, aud this certainly bodes ill for a young colony which, under ordinary circumstances, ought clearly to look for an influx instead of an efflux of population. Against the advancement of Nelson there is one very serious bar which provinces such as those of Otago and Canterbury have not to contend with, namely, the want of any large area of agricultural country. On the other side of the Bay there certainly is a considerable amount of bush land, which might eventually be turned to profitable account, but years of hard aud unremitting labor are required to convert the forest into the farm, aud so long as open land is to be obtained elsewhere, it is useless to expect that settlers will occupy country which has first, at the cost of much time, labor, and money, to be rendered fit for the plough. "Whatever prosperity may await our province, and I myself am not without hopes that better times are in store for us, must arise from our minerals and our manufactures. The former abound within our boundaries, while for the latter, no more favorable spot than Nelson is to be found in the whole world. Of two of the chief requisites, namely, coal, and water, there is no lack whatever, and what can be ' achieved by perseverance, energy, steady ! industry, and a firm determination not to be deterred by any difficulties that may arise, no matter how formidable they may appear or really are, has been clearly j shown by the success that has attended : the efforts of Messrs Webley &. Webb in | the direction of cloth manufacture. Hundreds and hundreds of yards of a ! material that for comfort and durability is j not, to be surpassed by any colonial, and I believe I may add, or any British manufacture, are annually turned -out at their mills, and to them it is owing that Nelson is brought prominentl^.'nefore the New Zealand public from jhe North Cape to the Bluff in connection with the cloth that bears her and which is gradually .cCming into favor in every province in the colony. Surely, the success that has attended their operations should afford grounds of hope for the future, and induce us to take less desponding views than we are all of us, at present, too much in the habit of doing. I, for one, fully sensible as I am of the depression that now undoubtedly prevails, do not despair, but still believe that the busy hum of machinery will yet be heard on all sides in our streets, as well as among the barren and unpromising looking hills that form the boundaries of our limited agricultural districts. This may be a dream, but it is an exceedingly pleasant one, and one that I hope to live to see most fully realised. The subject of local manufactures reminds me that I must not leave unnoticed a pleasing event which took place on Thursday evening. Irefer to the launch of a taut, well-built boat that has for some time been in course of construction on the Haven-road. I have no doubt that a full report of the event will appear in this evening's Mail, so that I shall not touch upon it any further than to offer my best wishes to the owner for the success of his venture, and to ask my readers to drive down the beach road and take a look at the shapely little vessel as she lies so snugly and gracefully on the water, affording one more instance of what may be accomplished by energy, perseverance, and hard work. I had occasion %k my last to refer to oysters ; in the present instance lam called upou to speak of a fish of an entirely different description. I suppose there are very few persons in. Nelson who, within the last day or two, have not heard of " the trout," which, indeed, :has — figuratively speaking, of course — been in everybody's mouth. I, among many others, went

to see her, for it was a she — I fully, expect to have "Anglo Saxon," "Tilbury Fort," and the P.D. and editor of the Colonist down upon me for the slight breach in the rules of grammar, to which, in anticipation of their scathing criticisms, lat once plead guilty — I went (I find I must repeat myself) to inspect this queen of fish as she lay in state at the Provincial Hotel, on Thursday, with the mass of ova that had been taken from her lying by her side, and I certainly was surprised to find that so splendid a specimen of this noble fish had been reared in so short a time. It is now but two years and a-half shi'-.e Mr. Huddleston, the Secretary of our Acclimatisation Society, arrived from Melbourne with the ova that he had so carefully transported from Tasmania, and here, lying before me, was a magnificent female fish, S^lbs in weight, affording a most incontestible proof of the success that had attended the experiment. It is greatly to be regretted that this fish had come to an untimely end, for the spawn which she contained was of itself sufficient to stock our rivers, but at the same time it is satisfactory to learn beyond all doubt that the trout will breed in our waters, and we may fairly hope ere long to see every river and stream in the Province stocked with a description of fish that affords as much gratification to the sportsman as to the epicure. Yesterday being Good Friday was observed as a close holiday, and, the weather being fine, advantage was taken of it by the townspeople to enjoy a thorough good outing, the recreation ground most affected by them being the new road round "The Rocks," which was fairly crowded, the happy-looking children who were to be seen there in swarms, revelling in the opportunity of a good paddle in the various pools of sea-water, utterly regardless of the effect produced on their holiday clothes by the combined action of sand, mud, and water. Salt water, hot cross buns, aud freedom from the restraint which fetters them in the streets will, I venture to say, be pleasantly associated in their memories for some time to come. F.