THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 137, 10 June 1872, Page 2

THE WEEK.

Q The printer tells me that the space he can afford me to day is exceedingly limited, which, of course, is annoying iuformation, seeing that the week has b en so remarkably lively and so full of stirring incidents, as, indeed, a week in Nelson always is. However, bis word is law, and I must cut the cloth according to the coat. I have been ratber complaining of late of thedulnessof the proceedings of the Council, but a great change has taken place since last I wrote, and the members have for the last few days been bubbling over with excitement. Tuesday was the day that wrought the change. On the Council meeting, the Provincial Secretary rose and complaiued that some one had been tampering with a return furnished by the Government showing the expenditure that had taken place in Westport. A pen had been run through the largest item, thus making it appear that but a very trifling sum had been spent there. Mr. Greenfield, with an assumed air of gravity, showed that for such an offence the Larceny Act provided for a term of imprisonment not exceeding three J|years

whereupon there "was a general commotion among the member?, one after onothei* netting up and any ing, I assure you I didn't do it ; it wasn't me Mr. Speaker ; I caa safely say I am not the guilty party, and so on. Very nearly all present went through the form of denial, but not quite all. Immediately this little excitement hud ceased, Mr. Kynnersiley rose and made the charge against Mr. O'Conor of which all Nelson, and probably all New Zealand, knows, by this time. The whole matter has beeu thoroughly sifted, and the ver■ict of the Council is against the accused, and a withering resolution of condemtiaiiou, far more severe 'than could be the heaviest penalty, has been passed a»ainst Air. O'Conor. And thus has ended a stirring week in the Couucil, but oue in which "the business of the province has not hcen advanced a single stage. Mr. Yogel has within the last week or iwo rendered himself doubly famousPoliticians and etymologists are equally interested in the events that have taken place within that period, for has not the great New Zealand magician with one wave of his -wand crushed the Duffy Ministry and added a word, and that word a verb, to the English vocabulary ? In short, has he not out-Vogeled Duffy ? The San Franciscan mail service was one <.f the chief counts in the indictment against the fallen Ministry, and until that' was brought forward, the Opposition could uot secure a victory. Byron, in his extraordinary poem " Manfred," makes the little Alpine spirit who was at the head of ihe avalanche department exclaim with some degree of pride : — " Fre it fall, that thundering ball Must pause for my command." Mr. Yogel will be able to talk in the same strain about the Victorian Ministry. lam airaid I am rather late in making the suggestion, but it would have been a good leading question to put to the candidates

for seats in the local education committee who are to be elected to-day, " Will you insist upon the verb *to Vogel* being taught in our schools." It would bring back pleasing reminiscences to that gentleman if in the course of twenty years he should make a tour of the schools and hear the little colonists repeating the lesson, "I Yogel, thou Vogelest, be Vogels," &c, and the pleasure would be enhanced if he were then to proceed to Australia and hear it conjugated in the passive voice — " I am Vogeled, tbou art Vogeled "and so on. Used in the imperative mood it would form a fearful imprecation. Its very vagueness and ambiguity would add terror to the expression " You be Vogeled," while the denouncer would be relieved by its utterance, quite as much as if a n?ore intelligible malediction had been rapped out, and further, he would, if a member of an anti-blasphemy club, save his contribution to the fund, while he could enjoy to the fuU the satisfaction of giving vent to bis feelings. I should like to enlarge upon this theme, but if I pursue it much further, I shall receive a practical illustration of the forcibleness of the expression from the printer, who has already given me one or two warning hints. " F. Saturday June 8.