NELSON BOARD OF WORKS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 108, 6 May 1872, Page 2

NELSON BOARD OF WORKS.

Friday, May 3. Present : All the members. A letter was received from the Rev. A. M. Garin, asking the Board to employ the prisoners in making a path, on private property, from Manuka-street to St. Mary's school. The Secretary was instructed to inform him that the Board had no control over the prison labor beyond employing it on the public streets. A letter was received from Messrs. Morrison, Sclanders, & Co., relative to the forthcoming sale of the Dun Mountain Company's property, stating tbat it had been suggested by many of the citizens that this was a property which the Board might feel inclined to purchase, and suggesting that steps should be taken in the matter without delay. A deputation was appointed to wait on the Superintendent, and to report at a special meeting to be held on Tuesday evening next. The Surveyor was instructed to lower a portion of the footpath in Tasman-street, and also to build a small drain across the Haven-road, near the Commercial Wharf. Complaints having been made with regard to obstructions on the footpaths, the Secretary was instructed to call the attention of the Inspector of the Police to the matter. ; The Board then adjourned until Tuesday afternoon, at 4 o'clock.

A Little Girl, about three years of ape, died at Hokitika last week, from the effects of chlorodyDe, a bottle of which was left in her reach, and from which she helped herself. I_r Dunedin some of those who supported the early-closiDg movement, while ostensibly closing their frontdoors, pushed a roaring trade by admitting the public through the postern entrances of premises. Judging, by the public appearance of the Japanese Embassy in California, it appears that its members will be able to treat with the diplomatists they meet in America and Europe thoroughly on an intellectual level. The speech of one of their number, Ito, at a banquet given to them in San Francisco was a remarkable address to come from a representative of what was a few years ago, the most isolated nod exclusive nation in the world. Speaking in English, in response to the toast, " Our distinguished guests," the Japanese orator sketched the results which had accrued to his country from its rapid adoption of the civilisation imported therefrom foreign lands. "It is," he said, " the earnest wish of both our Government and people to strive for the highest point of civilisation enjoyed by the most enlightened countries. Looking to this cud we have adopted their military, naval, scientific, and educational institutions, and knowledge has flowed to us freely in the wake of foreign commerce. Although our improvement has been rapid in material civilisation, the mental improvement of our people has been far greater." He alluded to the wonderful pacific revolution by which their "feudal system, firmly established many centuries ago, has been completely abolished without firiDg a gun or shedding a drop of blood." " What country," he asked, "in tbe middle ages broke down its feudal system without war ? These facts assure us that mental changes in Japan exceed even the material improvements." With the view of continuing the work thus happily commenced they desired to give a higher education to their women, by which they hoped " to insure greater intelligence in the future generations." Their maidens bad already commenced to como to America for their education. His country could not yot claim originality, but it would aim to exercise practical wisdom by adopting the advantage and and avoiding the errors taught her by the history of those enlightened nations whose experience is ber teacher. He went on to show what they had already done towards realising these aspirations. The peroration to his eloquent speech tended to prove thatlto's command of English political oratory had been acquired by a study of American rather than English models. He said " Japan is anxious to press forward. The red disc in the centre of our own national flag shall no longer appear like a wafer over a sealed empire, but henceforth be in fact what it is intended to be — the noble emblem of the rising sun moving onward and upward amid the enlightened nations of the world." A project of a kind that by comparison makes the work of carrying the telegraph wire across the continent seem a small matter, has been mooted in Adelaide. This is nothing less than to run a railway right across Australia from south to north, from Port Augusta to Port Darwin ; that is to say, between the two points which the telegraph is now intended to connect. The distance is about 2000 miles, and the estimated cost of the line, at the smallest computation, £10,000,000. The promoters want from the South Australian Government, as the base of operations, a grant of land to the extent of 200,000,000 acres, or three times the area of Great Britain and Ireland, the land to consist of 35 blocks lying to the right and left of the line. These are to be conveyed to them as the line progresses, and it is by the proceeds of the rent or sale of this land that funds are to be derived for continuing and working the railway. They ask, in the event of Parliament being favorable to their views, five years to float the scheme on the London market, and fourteen years after this for the completion of the line. A motion has been tabled in the South Australian Legislature which, without committing the colony to anything definite, affirms that tbe construction of sucb a railway would conduce to the interests of the colony, and authorises the reservation of land on each side of the proposed line. In these days when the American continent has been crossed by a railway that seems likely soon to have parallel ones by its side, when a railway to India is seiiously discussed, when the Alps have been pierced, and it is contemplated to tunnel under the straits of Dover, there seems nothing difficult to the imagination to conceive a journey by rail through the vast interior of Australia, where, amidst its immense solitary wastes, gallant explorers were encountering hardships and difficulties, and heroically spending their lives in the cause of discovery only a few years ago.