THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, 21 September 1872, Page 2

THE WEEK.

The • political^'Btorin that"" ragged so .f^npaisly. a.few, days "^gp, has ,, been followed. ;'-by a'dea'd calm,- a calm so complete that it , is almost painfiitjin: its^.stillness; From ; ; Wellington, the' quarter* from which ihe, laic galeßc f ble^B% fifirc'ei|, ;the^eTcpmea j ;npt . :^en^th^.%en^le#';^^yr^^ i -ftmied xthe^i^ejnent^ \ brjfghtljr a Bince^ vHot hias^

now completely subsided, leaving nothing but a dull andj^dismal heap of ashes. I fL<yr\\l say jhienthoqgh, that Nelson 'is jex■ceedingly *Belf-reiiant in tho matter of . news.i : ' The -facility with which rumors are manufactured, and the rapidity with which they are circulated, in this busy little city of ours is positively stariling, and very great credit is due. to some of the residents for the manner t in which they bring their inventive powers to bear whenever occasion requires^hem to do so. No sooner does a demand arise for news or gossip— the terms are frequently looked upon as synonymous — than a large supply is at once available, and although, there is a good dsal of shoddy about it, it is so skilfully manufactured that there is no little difficulty in distinguishing it from the genuine 'article. We have had an instance of this during the past week. A lull, of course, occurred in the political world immediately after the new Ministry took office, aud the telegraph wires could do nothing to eatisfy our craving for news, but we had those amongst us who were equal to the occasion, and so it soon began to be whispered abroad that the days of the infant Government were numbered — that the child contained within itself the seeds of dissolution which were rapidly developing themselves, and wonld soon lead to the decease of the invalid. There wos an air of circumstantiality about the rumour that led to its being accepted almost without question ; the majority of which the Opposition could boast was mentioned with an amount of precision and confidence that left no room for doubt, exactly six deserters from Mr. Stafford's standard having, we were told, transferred their allegiance to Mr. Fox. This was at the beginning of the week, but the end has arrived, aud as yet not a hint to this effect has reached us from Wellington where such a change would be sure to be known, and the report of which would, as surely, be sent swimming under the water and flying through the air by those who would be only too glad were it correct, to those who would be even more delighted to set it in type and distribute it through the country. Whether or not the production of the new Financial Statement is to prove the signal for another battle remains yet to be seen, but I, for one, doubt it, as the colony would scarcely be in a humor to witness two great party fights in one session; The House has decided against the late Ministry, and it is but just to the new Executive to give them a fair chance for one year at least. If at the next meeting of the Assembly, they should be found to have failed in their promises, by all means let them be submitted to the same treatment that Messrs. Fox, Yogel, & Co. have just received at the hands of the representatives of the colony. An idea has been broached within my hearing lately that at first sight appears to be worthy of consideration. The importance of the Upper Buller and Lyell districts," and the bearing that their prosperity would have upon Nelson, has long ere this been fully recognised, and the question is beginning to urge itself upon the public how communication between the t^o is to be established, The proposition to which I have referred, although only mentioned casually, and in the crudest form, appears to contain the germs of practicability if properly worked out, and I therefore repeat it now in the hope that it maybe fully considered by those who are acquainted with the country, and, if they should deem it feasible, be by them put into shape and brought before the public. To put it shortly, it is to the effect that a Company should be formed for constructing a tramway through the district alluded to, or a portion of. it, the price of the shares being such as to place them within the reach of all, while a prominent feature in the matter should be that money need not of necessity he paid for such shares, but that labor expended on the line should be taken as an equivalent. It was thought by the gentleman who suggested ihei idea to me that many of the storekeepers , business, men, a,nd others pecuniarily interested in the welfare of the Province would, if the scheme were placed befoie them in a thoroughly business-like form, beready to take part in it, not so much in the expectation of receiving large dividends frbnj .the working of the Hoe, as of the indirect benefits that would accrue by the throwing open of the country, while residents in the districts proposed to be brought into , closer coinmunicatiqn with the town and port of Nelson would willingly give tlieir labor in. payment for shares, seeing how great would be the advantage .to them of being able to procure the necessaries of life by an easier and . cheaper; means of 'transit than ■ that at present In existence. v It "was, /further thought that, such a work, as . tt e al y cpnjfcein-> plated ■wQuld.ibß one toiwiiicU4he!tPrdviTf-1 cial Government mighty be fairly expected to contriDu4e, .either in •money, or land, or . 'both."'" : : Sjuch '^&rp\tspw^oJF 'line .^mps .'"that ■were aaVaWced ;' ;t;£t£ye^o^d^'ab^'thkt:;co»« ■■ : ■ j^|U;.- i»of :-i>e,^a^tioj^j^^i^^^^diffictilties'.iiatHe'way may not proy© ;to beinsuperable, and

T, therefore, repeat that the question ia well .worthy consider ing,. and I, ana, quite aura fjfhat tjaay safely -say that 'the column^ of EyeniMgfMajl^til.se:y?\\\vng[y placed atHhe 'diflposalof^ those "who are prepared to earnestly discuss the merits of a great ~ public work, which, if carried out, will go far to remedy the depression that now prevails. I do not remember having, for some time, seen Trafalgar-street present bo I lively an appearance as it did a little after 5 o'clock ye6terday afternoon, when a severe earthquake shock.had the effect of expelling from the shop doors simultaneously all those who at tha time were behind or in front of the counters. I don't think I am mis-stating the opinions ©f the Nelson storekeepers, in asserting that they would be glad to be v4sited by another earthquake on the condition that it should act in the opposite direction, and instead of frightening customers out of, drive them into their shops. . F. For remainder of new* see. fourth page.

Among the " Miscellaneous" items on the Estimates, expenditure in connection with the Vaccination and Public Health .Act is set; down at £1500. A Man named John Tuck has been fined £45, io Otago, for slaughtering cattle without giving the required notice to the Inspector- of Slaughter Yards. Mr. Justice Johnston, in passing sentence the other day upon a man convicted of an assault upon a child, said "he shduld like to export him to some country inhabited by savages and wild animals." During the quarter ending 30th, June last, 115,042 telegrams were forwarded, an increase of 22,092 on the corresponding quarter last year. The cash revenue was £7849, against £6519, an increase of £1330. The value, of General Government telegrams forwarded during the same period was £2727, a decrease of £78. - It will be- seen (says the Wanganui Chronicle) that Mr. Stafford numbers among his followers nearly every man of any attainments outside the actual line of the late Cabinet. This is a healthy sign, and gives us hope that a time has come in , the affairs of this colony wheti . the best men are to have the management of its interests. ' ..>■'•■ The batch of Scandinavian immigrants ex the ship Friedeburg, lately arrived at • Lyttelton, have nearly all readily, found employment among the Canterbury settlers at fair rates of wages — single women, £15 to £20 per annum; married couples, £45, , with a promised bonus of £10 if remaining twelve months with first employers; single men, £25 to £30 with rations ; railway laborers, 7s, per day. The services of an interpreter was needed to negotiate the hiring, , The question is often asked says the Ban Francisco News Letter, how is it ■ that California can produce wheat at less cost than Aastralh, seeing that with us labor ; is so much dearer, and good land within reach of market no cheapsr. The main reason is assuredly the great superiority of our labor-saving machinery. With our gang ploughs one man here accomplishes as much in one day as is performed in Australia in five. Then a field of wheat here may be seen standing in the morning, and machinery has reaped, . threshed, winnowed, and bagged it by night. Almost every farm implement we use differs from those employed in Australia. There is a portable field of inquiry in the subject for the Australian agriculturist. The Greymouth Star thus bids farewell to all hopes of " Unification," or as Nelson folks are apt to call it " Amputation "- for this year at least :-r-Oa all sides we hear lamentations that, in consequence of - the change of Ministry, and the advanced period of the session, the West Coast Goldfields cannot be "unified," during the current year. After all the agitatioD, the heart-burnings, the anathematizing of Curtis, after even naming the dear infant ! of bur hopes in anticipation of its birth, and that, with a name bran new upon the face of the earth, our expectations are to be disappointed. We find that the professional advisers of our cherished country have totally mistaken the period at which the. interesting event , may be expected, and consequently that the Coast will not be able to vent its paternal feelings in caresses of its- charming "Unification" for some short space to come. A Ballakat reformer proposes that a : treadmill be erected in the gaol to work a quartzmill, where poor miners' quartz shall: be crushed by prison labor, — the treadmill- and the quartzmill to be in separate apartments so that the auri sacra fames may not have a felonious development. Br news from Hawaii (Sandwich Islands we learn', says the Sydney Morn.' ' ing' Herald that the great volcanoes Maunu Loa and Kilauea continue in activity, with, at times, fearful eruptions, and that the sinking of the shore which took place in 1868 still continues. The natives who used to live on the border of the sea have bad to rebuild their houses from a half to two miles inland; and where they formerly grew . vegetables and grazed their horses, they now catch fish. Mr. Jackson, who made an ascent in & balloon from the Derby Arboretum during, a thunderstorm on June 24, sends to the Derby Mercury an account of wh,at-;hej saw. He writes :—" I Believe I witnessed a sight that has never been seen be-- , fore. In one direction the black storm was^regfng: in aH ; IU fury. At times the lightning, ran from.. top to bottojn^iiL.a zigzag form. This produced rolling : thunder.:! ; : A^^ would' J Bplib; : Open, 'arid^;a'^du^''jciap/ t^f \ thunder -v Jf9^H , fQHpw./ • The '-< lightning J appeared bluer^ ■ and .the thunder sounded morie foUbw ; thku^^^ the ! earth; ;:.•; Over ;.^%^e! parts that tbe |tprmi jhaoic'fpassed^theria;; , appeared ■: iiglxt clouds moving in; another direction, which ' ''''■ l^kefrftjk^ '('■ v'firs£sij^ for.

storm, including the striking of five houses and the setting: of one ocean steamer on fire by li^itmn|i,.the i killing of four men by thunderbolts,* and the drowning of half-a-dozen." The Courier says:— Men of the strongest nerves were shaken as the flashes of lightning made the air quiver sensibly, and the tremendous blasts of thunder which followed on the instant shook things on the earth with a roar and a crash, as if everything had come to a sudden destruction. Horses and other animals were nearly wild with terrorra closeness aDd oppression^ as if the heavens were about to melt with fervent heat, overcame every one, and the only assurance against a conflagation of nature seemed to be conveyed in. the torrents of rain that fell during some of the worst phases of the storm. Religious Fanatics. — If ifc were not for our own Nuna wading revelations of a year or two ago, says the Australasian, it would appear strange to reflect that in any part of a community like Victoria^ tbere could be a sect like the " New Lights " of Stawell Moysten. These people it seems live.in the liveliest expectation of a "White Angel " coming down from heaven to take them up with him to that happy locality. There was an account some months ago of a • lot of ; these much-believing persons sitting on the top of a hill all night waiting for the angel to come and fetch them. However, he did not come, and it is painful to read that they have lately met! with another disappointment. Their; prophet, one Stephens, who seems to have a peculiar control over -the minds of these ignorant fanatics, and a sort of deputy prophet, named Irving, recently assured them that the "White Angel" was coming in reality this time. They therefore assembled ,and waited his arrival, passing the interval iv certain howlings of a hysterical character. But the angel again deceived them. One of the band, a farmer named Wiley, was told by Stephens: that he ought to endeavor to acquire a better and more godly frame of mind. Wiley, however, thought he could see a short cut put of his spiritual trouhles by cutting his throat. He did not thoroughly ; manage this, and is now an inmate of the district lunatic asylum. It is painful to learn that ths unbelieving people of Moyeton pay so little regard to liberty of conscience, and to the high vocation of the founder of anew faith, as to have meditated tarring and feathering Stephens if they' could have caught him. This pious personage has met with rough usage at the hands of the ungodly before . now. Still, in spite of the doctrines of Mr. Mill, it may be doubted whether it is not well to preserve the institution of martyrdom as o useful form/of test and assay which new religious faiths and their teachers should have to undergo. The- institution has its advantages and should not be rashly given up. To the persecuted there is the honour' attained, and to society at large there is the salutary effect of limiting the number of senseless divergencies of religious belief. We have bad and have quite enough of these in Victoria — more than enough for our credit as a sensible instructed people. These eccentric religious manifestations are often, and perhaps alwayp, accompanied by moral developments equally eccentric, and if the tendency to the increase of them could be checked by the moderate martyrdom of a few prophets, nobody— except, perhaps, the prophets — would think the price too much to pay for so desirable a result.