THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 130, 1 June 1872, Page 2

THE WEEK.

The election of a town member has come and gone, and we have witnessed the incongruity of an old-fashioned nomination, with the usual show of bands, followed by a polling, at which the votes were recorded under the ballot system. In Victoria they are more consistent. There the nominations are sent in in writing, aDd as a guarantee of good faith the candidate is required to lodge £50 with tbe Returning Officer, which sum be forfeits in the event of his not polling one-tenth of the total number of those who vote. In New Zealand we expect a proposer and seconder of each candidate, who of course declare themselves to be supporters of the man they nominate, and we then invite all the electors present at the nomination to hold up their hands in favor of this, that, or the other man, and at the same time assure them that the way in which they vote shall be an ' inviolable secret. Perhaps our legislators will one day see the absurdity of such a state of things. The election day was as amusing an one as we have had in Nelson, and we were treated to one or two very fair specimens of stump oratory, emphasis being given to the most telling portions of the speeches by an accompaniment played upon some of tbe most extraordinary instruments that it ever entered into the mind of man to extract sounds from. The Regulation of Elections Act forbids music on such occasions, ahd the performers probably bore this in mind when they constituted themselves a temporary band. The rams' horns, before whose blast the walls of Jericho tumbled over, were as notbing compared with the strange substitutes for musical instruments tbat were called into play on Monday last. Of course there were the customary placards affording valuable advice to the hesitating elector as to the way in which he should vote, and if all tbe big letters that met pur eyes on that day were to be relied upon, it appeared that a most affectionate regard for the welfare of the International Society had, with surprising suddenness, sprung up in the heart of at least one of the candidates. It is one of the most pleasing traits of a contested election that it so expands a man's mind, and sharpens his intellectual faculties that he is enabled to take in at one grasp subjects to which he had neyer before devoted a single thought, and, in addition to this, it cultivates a kindly feeling between the candidate and his brother men to such an exten that the former becomes consumed with an ardent desire to enter into all the minor joys and sorrows, and to sympathise with all the little hobbies of the latter—those of them, that is to say, whose names are oq the electoral roll. But I roust not enlarge upon all the new features in a man's | character that are brought out by an elec-j-.ion .or I should have! space for nothing else. One thing 7 has been* rendered quite clear by the event \of last, Monday, namely, that the people of; Nelson are-devoted ad-; hereots of the present Ministry, and great admirers of; big loans and the : temporary; prosperity, which they , are r calculated to; secure. . : . ; I eßohew poiiticßin these weekly'

notes of mine, and therefore all I have to say is, may the prosperity last as- long as the little half-yearly bills for interest. The Provincial Council has not been livelylately, and an evening spent in the Hall is not calculi-ted to cure a visitor of the "blues," should he chance lo be afflicted with them. And not only are the debates not lively but they are not even interesting. One gentleman gets up and says that the West Coast is being unfairly dealt by, and produces a long array of figures to show that so much more money ought to have been spent there, and then the' Provincial Treasurer rises and brings forward an equally long and equally reliable statement of pounds, shillings, and pence expended, whereby he proves that the goldfields have bad quite as much as they were entitled to. And then tbe next night, and the following night, and the night after that, there is the same thing enacted over again. Goldfields complaints, and the consideration of the Estimates have occupied the whole of this week, the amount of interest taken by the public in the proceedings of the Council being pretty clearly indicated by the fact that with one exception, there have not been more than haf-a-dozen people in the Hall at a time on any one evening. General Assembly and Provincial Council matters seem to have monopolised tbe attention of the public, for, as is shown by tbe absence of '* locals" from the newspapers, nothing whatever of interest has transpired during the week. We have received our twofold San Francisco mail and have been flooded with English newspapers, teeming with reports of the great Thanksgiving demonstration, which appears to have given rise to so much popular excitement at home. In the interest attaching to the receipt of the correspondence from home, we seem to have forgotten to make enquiries relative to the despatch of the last mail that left Nelson a fortnight ago on its way, as we fondly hoped, to England ; but I am afraid tbat if the matter were looked into, it would be found that the bags are still lying in tbe Postoffice at Auckland, whence they *ere to have been forwarded by the City of Melbourne to Honolulu. This boat, however, did not escape the fatality that seems to attend the boats connected with the Californian service, she having broken down between Sydney and New Zealand, and consequently tbe Nebraska will pro-

bably be able to boast of having carried two months' mails outwards as well as inwards. The Acclimatisation Society has been successful in the importation of hares from Melbourne, five of these animals having been put on board the Rangitoto, and the whole number arriving here in safety. Perhaps in the year 1882 the writer of weekly notes in the Evening Mail will be able to report a coursing match on the Waimea PJain, as the sequel to the event that I am to-day called upon to record. F.

Times gives better hopes :— " Grood news baa at last been received from Martin's Bay. j The statement stands : incredible, but it nevertheless appears to be true. Once or twice during the last month or two news has been- brought to Hokitika by steamer regarding the good crops at the lonely and well-nigh forgotten little settlement, and these statements are fully confirmed by the accounts brought overland to Queenstown a few days ago. The settlers appear as happy aud contented as can be expected under the circumstances; they have good crops, and speak highly of the climate, while a few miners are making a tolerable Hying at Big Bay. Wh take the following from the Tieapeka Times: — "About two months ago four deer were seen in the vicinity of the Remarkable Gap by one of a party of miners from the Waikaia, who were out prospecting this little frequented tract of coutry. They are described by our informant aa a buck and a doe and two young ynes— one of them being this season's fawn, the other apparently twelve months older. The place where they were observed is about 6000 feet above the sea level, and distant about eight miles from the " nortlr pole," in one of those singular snowy flats which are to be met with in that elevated/locality. Our informant, who came upon the deer suddenly, was within easy, range, and hod ample time to observe them. As they are little likely to be, disturbed in that wild and grand solitude in which they have taken up their abode, in a few years a large increase in their numbers may be counted upon; but stalking in that locality, except to men endowed with the exceptional powers and end endurance of chamois hunters will be out of the question. Where the deer can have come from is more than we can guess." The Perils op Teaching Gbammab. — The following has been "going the rounds "of late. We give it in our turn: "I have been sending my darter Nancy to skool to a schoolmaster in this neighborhood. • Last Friday I went over to the skool to see how Nancy was gettin' along, and I seed things I didn't like by no means. The schoolmaster was larnin' her things entirely out of the line of eddycation, and, as I think, improper. I sot a while in the skoolhouse, and heered one class say her lesson. They was a spellin', and I thought spelled quite exceedingly. Then cum Nancy's turn to say her lesson. She said it very spry. I was shok't, and determined she should ! leave that skool. I heard that grammar was an uncommon fine study, but I don't want any more grammar, about my house. The lesson that Nancy said was nuthin' but the foolishest kind of talk: the rediclest word she said was, 'I love.' I looked right at her hard for being so improper; but she went right on and sed, ' thou lovest and he loves.' And I reckon you never heard such rigmarole in your life — love, love, love, love, love love, and nuthin' but love. She sed one time *I did love.' Sez I, * Who do you love ? ' The skollars laffed ; but I wasn't to be put off, and sed, * Who did you love, Nancy ?' The schoolmaster, Mr. M'Quillister, put in ; he said he, would explain when Nancy finished the lesson. This sorter pacyfied me, and Nancy went on with her awful love talk. ,It got wus and wus every word. She sed, ' I might, could, or would love.' I stopped her again, and said I reckoned I would see about that, and told her to walk out of that house. The schoolmaster tried to interfere, but I would not let him say a word. He said I was a , fool, and I nok't him down, and made him holler in short order. I talkt the strate thing to him j I told him I'd show how hede learn my darter grammar. I got the nabors together,: and we sent Mr. M'Quill-Bter off in a hurry, and I reckon tharl be no more grammar leachin' in these parts soon. If you know of any oldish man in your region that don't teach grammar, we would be glad if you would send him up. But in future we will be keerful how we employ men. Young echooimasters won't do, especially if they teach grammar. It is a bad thing for morals," ,