THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 261, 4 November 1871, Page 2

THE WEEK.

__o I have this .week to record an event without. precedent in Nelson, namely, a public meeting at which everyone in the room, without a single C; exception, was* of the same way of thinking. Unanimity of" opinion is cot.as,a rule, a leading feature, in Nelson meetings, aiid tlie fact that it., existed bn Wednesday last is pretty clear . ■proof that there is some justice in the demand then made to the. effect that .--we should obtain a share of the money to be borrowed for expenditure on public works. It is somewhat unfortunate that the name "Nelson and Foxhill railway " . has been attached to that particular line for the commencement of which the public are now agitating, as it seems to point to Foxhill as the terminus. This is an idea that should be got rid of at once, as there can be no doubt that these twenty-two lines of railroad are but the first' instalment of a line that must eventually be carried through to the Western portion of the island, tapping in its progress goldbearing country, and fertile valleys that at ithe present time, are inaccessible. In the calculations that have been made with 'reference to the probable returns ' of this railway there is one important item upon which sufficient stress has not been laid, ionly & brief passing. allusion having -been made to it. T refer to the saving that "will be effected in the up-keep of the trunk line of J r,oadby relieving it of all the heavy traffic ! which it now has to. bear, thus setiting .at liberty a .considerable sum of money for expenditure upon the by-, roads which will act as feeders to the railway. The resolution, so unanimously adop.edpan'd so' ably supported by the i various. speakers: at the meeting must-have considerable weight -with, our representatives, in .,., .Wellington,.;^and^ ■> through " them. •wiii, 'we Hope, ;act upon the Government so' far 'as to md uce them to include this line in the. public woiksto be at once commenced.' " '*-;'. " * ( ; * ; ;. : \l r \Xx "' '"' „.. Frbrri, 1 Y^einngton *v^e I&arii that . additional burdens, are, little by little, being •placed upon the shoulders of the, people. The diity iipb'n Ibank' c_eques/is ddijbied| as is that ypon receip.ts, which no**?, as; ,in )f |injg*i^n)l ; , WiU • giyenjfor any /sum eroding •;;£_, instead of ;£s,' as hasfhitherto. been rtfaJa case here. ; A tax is placed upon the importation of cereah3,,jpa^ ,sp fl P», - no^ tdi p^pteotibn, wq are sioj.^vaSiiib^th^ revenue. An increasing expenditure, no :A*».?>?ffJ!^ft^W M? *_ a # ng opacity of the people j»uf& Q^arijy, haye a For remainder of news ccc fourth page.

A limit, to reach which appears to be only a oimar^er: of -time, j "We are making very rapid strides in that direction. ■-■> fTiNot one whomever met Bishop* Patte- •' son ; but will have -heard of his untimely and violent death with feelings of the deepest sorrow. An intimate and highly .valued friend of the present Bishop of ..Lichfield, he was accustomed for many •years to attend him, in the capacity of a missionary clergyman, in his periodical a -;'*v^sits''to'.the';Meilanesian Islands, and so "heartily did he : enter into the work that, -prior to Bishop Selwyn's departure for „J_ngland, he was consecrated "Bishop of Melanesia." For a length of time has he been' engaged in his labor of love, and very large is the amount of good he has done amongst the savage inhabitants of the is-ands, by a small band of whom he has now been cruelly murdered. To know _sishbp Patteson was to admire and respect him, and it is with no ordinary grief that I have now to record the death of one of the noblest of men, and most exemplary* of Christians, it was ever my lot to meet. The country districts are just now clad in their gayest and most attractive attire, and a walk, a drive, or a ride into tbe Waimea is a most enjoyable way of spending a couple of hours. The crops generally are looking most promising, particularly one field of wheat at Sioke which, if it is only harves.ed safely, will, certainly put a handsome sum of money into the pocket of its proprietor. The hawthorn "hedges, the number of which is, I am glad to say, largely on the increase, are at the present time most pleasant to the sense of smell, as to well, as that of sight, enveloped as they are in many places in a perfect mass of blossom. The success that has attended the efforts of the Acclimatisation Society is also very perception. Of the larks it is quite unnecessary to speak — every one knows that they are now to be seen and beard in hundreds '..:. — but, in addition to them, I recently saw, while making tha tour of the three bridges, chaffinches, sparrows, the brown quail of Australia, several brace of which were lately liberated near Appleby, and Californian quail, which exist in great numbers in the Waimea West district. One thing yet remains for the Society to do, namely, • to turn out the trout in the Waimea river. With the large and increasing number of those fish now to be found in the Maitai, there should be no difficulty in stocking the other rivers of the province. Twas not a little amused to find in yesterday's Colonist a verbatim extract taken from my weekly letter of a fortnight ago, but credited to the Wellington Advertiser, having reference to the "matrimonial newspaper" about to be started in Auck- ! land. Of course such a mistake is liable to occur at any time, but I was quite as much surprised as amused at finding that a i journal which would be thought very precise in such matters, 'could be guilty of such a thing, because I happen to remember that upon one occasion when a paragraph from " Talk " was copied in a similar manner from a West Coast paper by the Mail, a letter was at once inserted in the Qolonist calling attention to the fact in the folowing woiVs : — ■" Tour evening contemporary has fallen into the mistake of admiring your composition so much as to quote the Colonist paragraph line by line ! To be sure it has been procured through the medium of the Greyfßiver Argus, but that makes the admiration the more genuine. The only thing tp be regretted is that it should wait en ; days to get from tbe Coast what its honest admiration might have echoed on the evenJog of your publication of June 20." Does the same leasoning apply in the present instance ? If so, I ought to feel greatly flattered by the Colo iiisfs "genuine and Honest admiration" of the paragraph it has thought wor; hy of being transferred to its columns, but why wait nearly a fortnight '.' to obtain the extract from Wellington, instead of " echoing" it in the publication of .October 24? That is what puzzles me.