THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 184, 3 August 1872, Page 2

THE WEEK.

It will be generally localnews^as^been commodity in .Nel-. son of ISte, but: what /-Is', waoting~,in; our '.own^'^o^inc'e"»Kas .been, ' b;|Jh£-j_f_^ JVef- : iington, *nd 'life^te^rkais^that^acbifi

daily from thence are now beginning to be looked for with an in teres ti'vthat did not .bSlong 'io|tbeiii, injrhe earlier sdays of the fessioo^ I which, tiio'ugh jit came iv very ilUgela lamsj, promises^ to, ;assujno ' more of the nature of the Tion before its course is ruu. A great battle is already looming in the not very distant future, of which, if we are not fully acquainted with J,he whole of the circumstances that have tended to bring about the quarrel, we at least. know enough to lead us to believe that the old question of Centralism and Provincialism is at the bottom of it, and, if the "wires" are to be relied upon, the Proviricialisfs have assumed such formidable .numerical proportions tbat there is little doubt of their gaining the day. The consequence of a victory ou their part, we are told, will be. the expulsion of the present Ministry from their seats, but as yel we have no information with regard to those who. are to succeed them. I have been in the habit, for the last two years, of jotting down every Saturday my thoughts upon current events, so that I scarcely: think it necessary to remark here that I anu no believer in those at present in office, but before I can bring myself to rejoice at their being reckoned among the " outs " I want to be satisfied who are to be the " ins," and what are the points upon which they agree. As matters stand at present, I, with my limited means of ascertaining what is going on in the lobbies — which, by the way, form a very important part of the " House "— - can discover but oue bond of union among the members in Opposition, namely, a total absence of anything approaching to confidence id those now in power. This is but a feeble tie upon which to depend, and one that must naturally burst as soon as the object they now have in view of driving out of office the present occupants of the Treasury benches has been attained, and therefore, I, for one, until I can see more For remainder of news see fourth page.

unanimity than now exists among those out of office, would prefer to seethe Yogel Government remain iv power with a BtroDg and watchful Opposition to keep them in check, than a new Ministry formed .yiat is likely to tumble to pieces -before they have held oflice for a month. However, all is speculation just now ; in tbe course of another week or two, I shall probably be able to speak of the coming light as a thiog of tho past. So there is a probability of our being deprived of the services of that distinguished despatch writer, Sir George Bowen, whose contributions to the "Parliamentary Papers " in the form of letters to- .the,. Secretary of State form so bright nn ornament iv tbe Blue Books of New Zealand. It is rumored that he is to be promoted to the Governorship of Victorin, and while congratulating our Australian neighbors on the boon about to be conferred upon them, I cannot help asking with a sigh— what shall wo do without him ? I have- referred to Sir George Bowen's despatches, one of which I have .recently perused with so deep an interest that I' venture now to make an extract from it. His Excellency is describing an \ official tour through the Province of Marlborough, and^in doing so he imparts the following exceedingly valuable information to the Earl" ot Kimberley : " The of Marlborough, wbich was separated from Nelson in 1859, occupies the north-eastern corner of the Middle Island, and is deeply indented by the sea, especially by tbe branches of "the fine harbor of Port Underwood, and of the beautiful Queen Charlotte's and Pelorus Sounds. It is chiefly a pastoral district, nnd contains, as yet, a population of less than 6000 _ souls, including a few Maori families. There are only three small townships ; Blenheim, .(the seat of the Provincial Government) wbich is situated on tbe. fertile plains of the Wairau ; and Picton and Havelock, wbich are situated respectively at the head of the navigation of Queen Charlotte's and of Pelorous Sounds." I don't think tbat the most talented compiler of any nursery book purporting to give First Lessons in Geography could have done better than this, and I like to picture to myself the noble features of My Lord while absorbed io its perusal, and greedily drinking in the information for which he no doubt has so long been thirsting, and which is here placed before him in so palateable a form. Once again, I repeat, what shall we do without Sir George Bowen ? " It is very generally known that a formidable attempt is to be made this session to rob Nelson of her Western territory, an attempt which, it is said, is to, meet with the support of the Government. It appears that one of the results Of having a Prime Minister whose time is not fully occupied with the business of the country, over which he is supposed to exercise a certain amount of supervision, is that certain provinces, against the authorities of which be may happen to entertain a hostile feeling, are to be injured as much as possible by his inter- • sessional tours, and Nelson has been selected this year as the particular province, and Mr Curtis as the honored individual that Mr Fox has chosen to visit with his animoEity. Ifc is well known that when.on the Coast, a few months ago, he did all in his power to create dissension between the people and their Superintendent, and tho results are now beiDg made known at Wellington, but the people of Nelson, although the locality in which they live is known as " Sleepy Hollow," are not ajways somnolent, and tbe time has now arrived for them to be up and doing. A petition, the object of which is to protest against this iniquitous disintegration of the province, is to be at once circulated in Nelson east and west, and it behoves every one who is interested in the welfare of the district to sign it, and to show in every possible constitutional manner his strong disapprobation of therash, step, to which, the Colonial Government are about to give their countenance. „:::•--, , . "~ 7- F.