THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 172, 20 July 1872, Page 2

THE WEEK.

Viewed politically, the week has been an unusually busy one, .he election of a member of the Provincial Council for the town, and the opening of the General Assembly having taken place within its limits. I have given the first place to the election simply because il took chronological precedence of the other event, and not because it was looked upon in the town as a more important occurrence, indeed, next to tbe Amuri which refuses to appoint a representative at ail, Nelson displayed as great a degree of apathy as it is possible to conceive with regard to an election. One candidate sought the suffrages of the electors, and about live times one of the latter were present nt the nomination. What does this bespeak ? Entire satisfaction with the candidate offeriug himself, or a growing indifference to the manner in which our Provincial affairs are conducted? If the former, the electoral district of the City of Nelsou is to be congratulated upon having secured a man after its own heart, if the latter, it is scarcely to be regarded as a healthy iealure in our political life. The second event, namely, the opening of the Colonial Parliament, was one in which we were all preparod to take a large amount of interest, and tbe receipt of tbe Governor's speech was looked forward to more eagerly than in any previous year, but the tiny mouse to which the laboring mountain gave birth was such a supremely ridiculous little object that the political cats who were on the look out for, and ready to pounce down upon, it immediately it made its appearance, did not think the poor timorous little thing worthy even of a pat from their claws, and it has been suffered to pass unmolested into the obscurity for which alone it was fitted. The member for whom was reserved the special honor of moving the reply must have been driven to his wits' ends for matter on which to base a speech, and ;t is easy to conceive how greedily he seized upon the allusion to Native affairs as the most fertile theme upon which to enlarge. Imagine a man possessed of a moderate amount of ambition, and desirous of creating a sensation having such materials placed before him for the concoction of an oratorical dish. If Mr. Luckie contrived to make anything out of it, its aavoriness must have been owing entirely to the spice supplied by himself, but a palateable hash may occasionally be made even out of the driest and mest flavorless of cold mutton. I confess 'that I shall look forward to Hansard No. 1 with no little interest. If in future years notbing better can be put into tho Governor's mouth than the inane production of Tuesday last, jt surely would be wiser to pursue the far more sensible course recently adopted by the Superintendent of Hawke's Bay, who opened and prorogued his Council without any speech at all. All sorts of rumors are afloat with regard to tbe probable fate of the Ministry during the present session, but, if it be possible to arrive at any opinion at this early stage of the proceedings, I am disposed to think from information that has reached me from numerous private sources, that although there is a large amount of dissatisfaction extant with reference to the conduct of public affairs, the absence of any sympathetic tie among those ia opposition will prevent any combined attack being made upon the present holders of office. There will be plenty of sharp skirmishing, aud we shall hear of the outposts of the occupants of Ihe coveted citadel being constantly driven in, but unanimity in tjie councils of the besiegers appears to be wanting, and we all know what the result of that must be. Among the items of telegraphic intelligence that have reached us during the week is one that is worthy of notice", namely, thfit the .works on the, Picton and Blenheim railway have been actually com-

met-ced. For this, I think that the inhabitants of Marlborough owe a debt of gratitude that it would be difficult to repay, to Mr. Seymour, their energetic Superintendent who, by dint of sheer hard work and dogged perseverance, hns attained tbis very desirable object. He has not left a stone unturned, nor lias he been deterred by the very great inconvenience to which he has been put by iho frequent visits he was compelled to make (o Wellington to keep Ministers up to their promise; by the running to and fro between Marlborough and Nelson to acquire the necessary sections of land, many of which were in tha hands of proprietors resident here; or by the many sacrifices of his own immediate interests to which ho has had to submit, hut slpadily and unflinchingly he has bravely stuck to his work, and the end he had in view has at last been achieved. If I were disposed to moralise, I could point to a promise given by the Colonial Executive last session that the Nelson and Foxhill railway should also be commenced, but I cannot call to mind any such energy or determination on the part of our public men. A good many sticks and flags and heaps of stones are to be seen between here and Foxhill, butasyet wehavenoteven been favored with a visit from ono of Mr. Brogden's stall" of engineers. Possibly if those in authority here were inoculated with a little of the Seymour energy and activity, the result might be beneficial to our interests. I cannot imagine what has become of our Nelson weather of late. Clearly, it has deserted us. but where it lias gone it is difficult to say, for the meteorological report that is posted daily at the telegraph oilice tells us that rain and wind, and flooded rivers are not confined to our province. It certainiy i. a most unusual winter, exceptionally wet one week, and extraordinarily cold another. The hard frosts that we experienced ten days ago were severely felt in other parts, and I hear from a runholder in the Amuri tbat all the gum trees on his station, some of which were over tea years old, had been cut down by them, and more than this, that there had been a heavy fall of snow, the ground being covered to the depth of several inches, but the frost which immediately followed was so severe that several thousand sheep were put through his yards while the snow lay on the ground without their even breaking through tho upper crust. Those who are accustomed to drafting sheep will be able from this fact to form some idea of the intensity of the cold. Once a month without fail I have to notice the fact that tha California!! mail has not arrived at Auckland although five days overdue. The time has once more come round for making this remark, the Nebraska which should have reached New Zealand on Monday last not having yet put in nn appearance, and the Taranaki which was to have brought our mails has consequently left Cnehunga without them. I question very much whether any other mail service in the world cau boast of such regular unpunctuality, F. For remainder of news see fourth page.

An Auctioneer's Motto.— ' buy and buy. , The largest, orchard in the world is in California. . It. contains .426 acres, .and more than 75,000 fruit trees. At ameetingof farmers at Manchester, it was stated that the production of milk costs 28 per cent, more now than it did two years Bgo. An American medical authority says that there aro more than a thousand kinds of patented medicines in the United States. There are said to be 40,000 hands employed irregularly in tbe London market gardens. They are engaged in the cultivation of 18,000 acres of ground. The Port of London now possesses 488 acres (water) of docks, and nearly 3000 acres of river waterway. The average number of vessels constantly moored in the Port is about 850. The height of pugilistic sarensm was reached one day by Jem Mace, who speaking of a rival accused of beating his wife, said, " What him 3 He couldn't lick a postage stamp." « After a contest, which occupied two evenings, Mr. Blackbourne, the blindfold chess player of England, vanquished ten members of the City Chess Club, having been declared the winner in eight out of teri games, two of them being drawn. The drum ami fife band attached to a volunteer corps in England (the Oldham Rifle Corps) has been stripped of its regimentals, and discharged for taking part in a political demonstration to condemn the provisions of the Criminal Law Amendmect Act. According to tho Pall Mall Gazette, some extraordinary revelations were made at the trial of the Galway election. It was proved that one of the local journals charged £1,000 for publishing report's and leading articles in Captain Nolan's favor. Leading articles were charged at the rate of £10 each, meetings £40, and so on. At Tass they have adopted a novel method of utilising prison labor. Prisoners are allowed to tender for Government works. The Yass Courier, 14th June, says: ''Considerable surprise has been expressed in Yass that two persons now serving services in the Yass gnol, one because of non-payment of a fine for sly-grog-selliog, tbe other for stealing money, have had tenders for road contracts accepted by the Government. In Cleveland tho youug unmarried ladies have a steel trap affixed to the waist of the dress, and concealed by a masked panier. When a young gentleman accidentally places his arm around the wearer's waist, he hears a "click" and finds his arm caught. A big brother with a lamp enters, and the victim sorrowfully staris for the jeweller to examine his wedding rings. ; The Corporation of Leeds, haviug a year ago taken into their own hands the manufacture and supply gas for the tolm, find on balancing their accounts for the first twelve months of the management that a profit has accrued to the municipal exchequer of no less than £13,000. In addition to that profit it is to be stated that the gas was supplied to consumers at a rate much lower than the average rate. The Melbourne, correspondent of a Victorian contemporary, in referring to the appearance in that colony s$ the foot and mouth disease, says : — I heard it stated, to-day as an instance of the frightfully contagious nature of this plague, that a grazier in England was the means of communicating it to a whole herd by mer.ely placing hia hand on the back of one of the number after touching the diseased part of an infected animal. "The "finisher. of the law," as the Evening News. calls the Sydney hangman, appears to be a remarkably affable and impressible gentleman. After launching [Nicholls and Lester into eternity, " he remained a few minutes chatting pleasantly with one or two of. his acquaintances. This Colonial Calcraft is the sort of man who, assJerrold said, would sharpen a knife upon his mother's tomb-stone to cut his father's throat. It seems as if the people in tbe bid country are not' so well off in the matter of servants as may be imagined, as the following, extract irom a private letter received at the Thames from London by the last mail plainly testifies. The writer says :— "Your mother had a visit from — I cannot say.a servant— but a yqung iady with a who actually left a stylish visiting card, printed Lily Ai Freeman? * That beats New Zealand out of therfield,-I. : think'*:; Not a bit of ' it;l : ;&o% Pmiuy^ 'servant -girls at Borne side-sad4les ? p:!§^y§^^'omxxip^\y,in .the /possession of £;pti#%el^ since since * we r^d: ; i^ a servant - ;at^';Kqte^ her

Over six millions of acres of land are devoted to the culture of the grape vino in France. . A Lady recently married' consulted her lawyer on the following question : — " As I wedded Mr. Smith for bis wealth, and thai; wealth is now spent, any I not. to all intents and purposes, a widow, and nt liberty to marry again ?" A Lady School-teacher in Omaha, having nn inordinate dread of the smallpox, sent home a little giil because she said her mother was sick, aud had marks on her face. The next day the girl presented herself at lho schoolhouse, with her finger in her mouth, and her little bonnet swinging by the stiiugs, and said to the teacher, "Miss , weVe got a leetle baby at our house ; but mother told me to tell you tbat it isn't catchin'." The teacher said she was very glad, and told her- pupil to take her seat.