THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 160, 8 July 1871, Page 2

THE WEEK.

. I had occasion last week to refer to the dearth of news, and the consequent difficulty I experienced in filling my accustomed column, nor am I at present prepared to affirm that any change for the better has taken • place. The same delightful state of dulness prevails, and the journalist has to look beyond his own particular locality for his daily pabulum. After this introduction, my readers need not be surprised when I say that I propose to give some extracts from a very pleasant little work I have lately been reading, which seem to me to be not altogether inappropriate to our style of. life here, and some of which may furnish hints that may be of use to our country settlers. The work to which I allude is entitled "'* My First Year in Canada," and is written by the Bishop of Montreal. It is quite a new book, having been published in London this year, and contains many interesting iucidents of Canadian,,^! ife. The first passage that struck .me as* possessing some interest for my country friends was the account of the manner in which the dairy farms are worked in that part of the world. " The farmers\around Dunham," says the writer, "are many of them substantial men. their fathers and grandfathers having settled here a&d purchased land, clearing it by degrees. Io this immediate neighborhood a great deal of very excellent cheese is made, and every person has his staff of cows, varying from twenty to fifty in number. These are milked by the' roadside morning and evening; the milk is deposited in zinc pails, and placed on a platform, and a cart comes trotting by, picks up the various contributions, and carries them to the cheese factory where each lot is weighed and duly accounted for. Some of these factories receive the milk of a thousand cows. The cheeses, whioh usually weigh about 60 or 70lbs, are sent either into the States or to England, and better I have never tasted." Some such I plan as this might, one is disposed to ' think, be carried out with advantage in the Waimea districts where an establishment of the kind. might be very cheaply worked, thus relieving the housewives of the trouble and care of cheese and butter making for which mauy of them who are mothers of large families can ill afford the time. The facts related in my next extract T am not altogether prepared to recommend as an example to be followed by our farmers but I merely quote it as an amusing account of the skilful manner in which the Canadian waggoner handles his ' team. The writer says, in describing the harvesting operations :— - " They carry their loads in very light waggons, the driver perched on the top, and driving with reins at a good brisk trot. Thus tbey\vhisk U P 'heir produce and carry it off to the barn, whilst our laborers would he crawling about the field, and deliberating as to their next step. We were much amused one day 'to watch this process, as we were taking a drive along the high road. We saw, iu an adjoining corn-field, a waggou pretty well loaded, and coming towards us. We discovered the only gap in the fence whereby it could properly make its exit, and that rather a steep and perilous one. So we stopped to'"_ee how the waggon would fare. It came up swaying terribly from side to side, the driver standing on the top with his legs very far apart- uot only -keeping his own balance, but poising the; whole load by the nice adjustment of His', 'own, weight. When he arrived at the g&p he. paused, as if to take aim, aud then,g{iving a shout of encouragement to his horses, -he "dashed through, and making a, sharp turn into the road, trotted along; to 1 the barn, and deposited his oats there in- perfect safety. It was a feat of dexterity which would have astonished not a little our English waggoners if they could have seen iit. i9 : One: more very brief extract, to my mind peculiarly applicable to our Waimea farms, and I have done. "It strikes!me," .writes the ; Bishop, ."that, considering the great scarcity ;of labor, most of the farmers have: too large a tract under cultivation. \jThe' consequjenceis that the land is insufficiently worked^ ancl not. made to .yield half; 'that it is capable \of producing." I ought perhaps to offer* an apology for filling my space, with v borrowed matter, but -it*» appeared to me that the extracts I have selected might possess as, much interest for others as did the book from # which they are taken for me. , Other , journals, I observe, are' driven by the dulness of the. times to fill their column^" with -facetious allusions to the -internal- economy! of rival newspaper offices j I have taken refuge in the harvest fields of Cariada. ■ ■ V ! The closing, week; f has been a fatal one to many a score of pheasants, which are more plentiful* > tb-is 1 year thfetai 1 ever •'tb'ey have been, one gent^manof my t acquain-. tance' > havl'tig)^ together h ! i| sbni' succeeded in bagging 18^ hr_ce ink little over two days, and several .others, fraying done -nearly, if not quite, as well. lam

told that the birds are particularly plump and welL flavored this season, but it is exceedingly unsatisfactory to report upon such a ]; matter* upon .mere hearsay; I would ■' far rather speak from from my own experience. Perhaps some of my Motueka friends will bear this in mind. My address, I may ad J, is Evening Mail office, Nelson. Birds are not the only animals on which our Acclimatisation Society may pride itself, as has been proved this week by the. noble trout that was found near Campbell's mill, and thence removed to the Maitai river. There is a little discrepancy in the reports as to its size, some saying that it was 22 inches, and others 2 feet 2 inches in length, but,, even taking it at the lower estimate, its growth is something astounding, for it must be remembered that three years have not. yet elapsed since Mr. Huddleston arrived with the ova from Melbourne. Growth so rapid as this is, I believe, unheard of in England. Birds. and fishes have certainly prospered here, and as for beasts, reports are constantly being received of the herds of deer that are to be seen on the hills.- This wiil be a fine country for sportsmen before many years have passed. An. instance of smartness to which we are not quite accustomed in Nelson. By the steamer Wellington which entered our harbor on Saturday morning lasf, one Wong Ah Chee arrived with an assortment of teas and fancy goods of every description. During the day he secured and stocked a shop, which fact was duly advertised in-.. that evening's paper. That " Heathen Chinee " won't starve here or anywhere else. The weather we have had of late, and are still experiencing must be most trying to the various country Road Boards, for, what with hard frosts and heavy rains, both high-ways and by-ways are terribly cut up; and the Waimea- road is just now in a painfully liquid state, reminding one to a certain extent of the "good old times,*" when the journey from Richmond to town was provocative of a good deal of language more expressive than refined on the part of the bullock drivers. Boulderbank gravel has clearly proved its vast superiority over every other description oy road metal, and although the first cost or providing it may be much larger than that of any other stone, it is evident that in the eud it will prove by far the cheapest. F.