THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 220, 14 September 1872, Page 2

THE WEEK.

The excitement of keeping watch over the sick bed of the late Ministry, as it lay in its death agony, being over, the past week has, by the contrast it offered to the two or 'three which immediately preceded it, proved insufferably dull and monotonous. Up to Saturday last, those interested in the fate of the diseasestricken patient, wore in a constant state of anxiety and eagerness to hear the latest bulletin ; day by day there was wired' across to us the state of the pulse, which now throbbed strongly and almost healthfuly, and again fell to a weak, hurried fluttering that seemed to offer no hope of the recovery of the body whose state of health it indicated ; the nurses who watched the case, and upon whom we had to depend for the latest accounts, varied considerably in their opinions, and while one would inform us that the sick man was doing wonderfully well, and the symptoms hourly improving, the other took a less hopeful view, and assured us that his days were numbered. The latter of these two, as events have proved, had formed the more correct opinion of the case, and the Fox-Vogel Ministry, whose state of health has proved so frnitful a source of anxiety to the whole colony, has succumbed to the pressure of circumstances, and, deprived of the warmth and animation that was imparted to it by Power, has passed away into the cold shade of Opposition. But it is not for me to write an epitaph to be inscribed on the tombstone of the deceased. lam willing to leave that painful task to those who are so happily constituted that while they could appreciate the good, they were equally able to ignore the bad, qualities of the departed, and for the public of the colony it now remains to exclaim with the vivacity of French vaen-r-Le Boi est mort: Vive le Moi. It is necessary for me to say that I am writing this before the manifesto of the new king has reached us, so that, while I am able to discuss with calm indifference and with eyes unsuffused with tears, the political demise of the late occupants of the Treasury Benches, I cannot be expected to speak with any great burst of enthusiasm of the advent to power of the new men. Good ones there mo3t undoubtedly are among them, but I fear that the elements of weakness are not alto-, gether wanting in the recently formed Government, and there was a world of sarcasm in Mr. Fox's brief epithalamium, in which he congratulated Mr. Stafford upon having wedded himself to Mr. Sewell " the colleague of so many -Ministries." But at/the time I write, nothing really definite appears to have been determined upon, so let us hope that this new old Minister is but a temporary stop gap. „ 'Plenty of excitement is in store for Nelson. , Mr. Curtis will of course resign the posfc he now holds of Superintendent of the Province at "the close of the session, and then we shall have to face the momentous question— Who is to be his successor ? As yet there is but one gentleman with regard to whose candidature there is any degree of certainty, namely, Mr. Shephard, but as we all know, Mr. Sharp's-, is the name most freely mentioned, but hitherto he has made no sign, although we may expect' him 'to f declare himself, yea or nay, very .shortly, and judging from what is- to be heard in the -streeti he : would certainly !, be -'the, favorite should be come forward;' Mr. l! &rthu* ; Collinsf=is anbthfer ;;whom <Enmbr, has nominated i for ihe office, while innumerable small fry are said to be nibbling at the bait. Ir'NqJlesfr thanfive other names have been mentioned within my hearing,:' /bu't'm^fen^ andv'-Teraees' l/: ; 'io^^iy ei '"' ; "birtiTv " to „; all' jihe i.littlie^ould-Je, y Superi which it is pregnant. Jf et -another ;.montii : or two, and y,& shall; all be .as f ul|; >of • in-; iformatipn.iai^is'jiliii iittle^bit;bf^j^clfcfii'at & •f no w' 1 tfolSii^^

In the absence of any exciting or interesting local^a.tter, Lhave been driven |o^o^abroid||o^ "news," and in^tjfie "jbojjrsia fpf *m|v||re'learches, I \have, 'mucK ;^gratificatmp| made the discovery that a newspaper published in that utler- : most end of the colony, Invercargill, is able to boast of a Nelson correspondent. Only one of this gentleman's letters, has come under my notice, but one of the kind is quite sufficient, ,as it abounds in sparkling gems of truth and humor, which, if more frequently presented to the sight, would prove overpoweringly, dazzling. After , deploring the dearth . : of news in Nelson, "our own correspondent" goes on to say : — " Politics are a fertile topic of conversation, and. we are all laughing at Mr. Stafford's funny predication of his opponents as a * miserable set of wretches '—decidedly the language rather of an aged female of lavatory pursuits than of a distinguished, statesman." I presume the writer meant to assert that the epithet that set us " all laughing " was such as might have been expected from an old washerwoman, but. a keen sense of . humour, combined, probably, with an eye to hosiuess, induced the penny-a-liner to rsubstitute the witty and .more lengthy phrase, " an aged female of lavatory pursuits." From a washerwoman to Mr. Luckiethe transition appears to have been easy, as the correspondent of {be favored journal at once proceeds to say: — "Our Mr. Luckie. is acquitting himself wellHe has, as I predicted, taken a good position, and will, doubtless, sooner or later, be in. the Ministry." Mr. Luckie in the Ministry! The idea will be as novel to Nelson readers as interesting to the colony at large. But, if speculative on politics, the gentleman who undertakes, to keep the people of Invercargill informed on matters pertaining to Nelson is deliciouely absurd on other matters. Let us see what he has to say on a topic that appears to have engrossed his whole attention — a petty squabble between .a couple of musical critics which for a day or two amused the readers of one of the morning papers : — " You will remember my ridiculing in ray last letter the Examiner's muaieal critiques. Someone here at length took the same view, and under the norn de plume of ' Demisemiquaver,' made, in the Colonist, a tremendous onslaught on the 'Examiner's little musical Daniel.' as the writer phrased it. A terrific newspaper war resulted, all three papers rushing headloDg into the melee, which excited far more interest than really important subjects. In the end, the revolutionist, ' Demisemiquaver, ' was left in victorious possession of tbe field. These incidents will show what an intensely uneventful life we lead in Nelson, wheu such trivialities are the chief occurrences of note." And so they would if they were true, but the best comment that can be furnished upon the statement tbat " great interest was excited," and tbat " all three papers rushed headlong into the melee" . will be found in -the following paragraph which appeared in the Evening Mail at the time referred to : — " A corVespondent has favored us with a long letter on the subject which has recently raised such a storm in the musical teapot in Nelson, but as we do not believe that the public care the value, of a single fiddlestring about the matter, we must decline his communication with thanks." " Demisemiquaver '■ should counsel his friend—^ for it is natural to suppose that the writer of the above quoted trash is his friend, or he would never have created .such a mountain out of a puny molehill-^'to be less imaginative in any future letter he may write purporting, to i give -outside readers an idea of life in Nelson. F.