THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 18, 20 January 1872, Page 2

THE WEEK.

Tho fire whieh occurred on Sunday last, and the disclosures then made of the unreliable state of the appliances at the disposal of the Fire Brigade, bave naturally formed the chief topic of conversation during the week, and have, as mi«ht be expected, set on foot a movement for obtaining a better description of hose, in which some confidence might be placed iu the hour of danger. It is to be hoped that the inhabitants of the town will not allow the matter to drop until they see this movement properly carried through. If tlie town is to placed in safety, the Brigade must be supplied with better material, but, although the subscription list was commenced in a favorable and promising manner, lam sorry to say that I do not hear of any large additions being made to it. Ifc is absolutely uecessary, if we are really desirous of being placed in such a positioa that the occurrence of a large fire may be looked upon as an impossible, or, at least, an improbable, event, that £150 should be raised by the Insurance Offices and the public towards the purchase of a couple of leather hoses and a new reel. Towards this, one of the Companies has contributed £10, aud it would be well if the others were to come forward in the same spirit and bear their share of the burden, but this is not a matter that must be left to foreign bodies such as the Insurance Companies; the public must help themselves, and that both liberally and quickly, as it has been clearly shown that the town is in great danger from fire. Had a stiff breeze been blowing on Sunday night, with the walls and shingles of the houses in their present dry state, there is no knowiog where the flames might have extended to, and who shall say tbat another fire may not break out at any time, and under less favorable circumstances than on that evening ? Should such an event occur, it may be as well to remind those who crowd to the spot on such occasions, that the efforts of the Brigade are not in any way forwarded by a number of those present amusing themselves by standing on the hose with a view to ascertaining what are the sensations experienced on feeling the water rushing along beneath their feet. Were a few thoughtless children to indulge in this silly pastime one would not greately wonder, but it certainly is surprising to find that grown men can be guilty of such an act of folly. When the captain of the Brigade is compelled to neglect more important duties in order to see that no one is doing his best to burst the bose; when he is to be heard every uow and then exclaiming, " For Heaven's sake keep off that hose or you may cause thousands of pounds of damage," the bystander can scarcely be expected to form any very exalted idea of the good sense of those who have to be thus apostrophised. The absence of anything in the shape of local news is shown by the fact that nothing worthy of notice is to be found in my note-book from Sunday until Thursday evening, when one of the most interesting meetings ever held in Nelson took place at the Provincial Hall on the occasion of Mr. Curtis addressing his constituents. The easy, pleasant speaking of our Superintendent always attracts a large number of persons to his meetings, but on this occasion

he was even more fluent than usual, and it was a real pleasure to listen to the masterly manner in which be touched upon the principal events of the late sessiou. His ready answers to all the questions put to him show that he is uo inexperienced politician, but that he is always ready to give a reason for his actions, none of which appear to be the result of any ill-considered or hastily arrived at conclusions, bufc all of them give tbe idea of being the nonsequence of an honest conviction on his part that what he does is for the real advantage of those whom he represents. Did New Zealand possess a few more such earnest and reliable leading meD, she would not now be risking her whole future on a single throw of the dice. If " sixes " turn up, well and good ; if " aces," what then ? This is a question that does not appear to have been fully considered by those who hold the ribbons of the State coach, nor indeed by those who placed them on the driving box, but it may be tbat the day is not far distant when, with bruised skins aud broken limbs, we shall bitterly repent of having trusted ourselves to Jehus more celebrated for their flashiness than for any amount of skill in handling a team. My metaphors I see are a little mixed but they are both applicable and intelligible, so I shall restrain a desire that, on reading the foregoing sentences, possessed me to run my pen through them. Careful consideration is considered " slow " now-a---days, and the spur of the moment is the great incentive to action. I may as well keep pace with the times. English mails seem to be always either coming in or going out just now, and no sooner is one either desp.tched or received than a Post Office notice warns us tbat we may either look out, or get our correspondence, ready, for another. The next mail via San Francisco leaves on Monday, but I do not make mention of this simply as a matter of news, but rather with a view to noticing the action recently taken by the clergy and citizens of Wellington, a deputation from whom we are told " waited upon the Postmaster-General," (I quote from a Wellington paper) — "with reference to the departure of the English mail steamer from Wellington on Sunday. The Post-master- General thanked the deputation for bringing the matter before his notice, and promised that he would, as soon as possible, so arrange the service that the steamer should leave Wellington always on Saturday in each month." I trust that the religious scruples of the Sabbatarians of Wellington, with whose action I by no means desire to find the slightest fault, are not of a purely local tendency, and that those who hold them do not iutend to assert that the Sabbath-breaking propensities of tbe Post-office, of which they complain, though sinful in Wellington would be harmless in Nelson, or that they are careless whether the fourth commandment be broken here so that it be kept in the metropolis; bufc it appears to me that the result of the steamer leaving Wellington on Saturday, will be that ifc wiil sail from here either on Sunday night or early on Monday morning,' thus necessitating the closing of the mail in Nelsou on the evening of the first day of the week. Judge Richmond, in his recently delivered charge to the Grand Jury, commented on the evils of separate and independent action being taken by the various Provinces of New Zealand in certain social and political matters : ean it be that the Provincial selfishness, with which he found fault, extends to the religious as well as to the political bodies, and that in hunting a sin out of their own locality they are careless of the feelings of their neighbors over the border ? F.