The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 271, 14 November 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1872.

Mr. Shephakd's Meeting.— ln a somewhat discursive speech of two hours and twenty minutes, Mr Shephard addressed a crowded meetiDg of his constituents last night, who in return expressed themselves satisfied with the action taken by him in the Assembly. On this head we can scarcely agree with them, but must defer any further remarks until tomorrow. Owing to the great length of the speech, our report is necessarily confined to a mere abstract, but there will be found therein Mr Shepherd's explanation of the contradictory votes given by him, which have rendered him famous throughout the colony. Mr. Domett's Poem. — Mr. Alfred Domett, so well known throughout New Zealand, and especially in Nelson, has recently published a poem entitled " Ranolf and Amohia: a South Sea Day Dream," in which, we believe, he recounts his colonial experience, though we have not yet seen the work itself. The following, which we take from a short critique that appears in the London Examiner, is the opening Btanza: — ■ Glorious ! this life of lake And hill-top ! toil and tug through tangled brake, Dense fern, and smothering broom ; And then such rests as now I take, In sunflecked soft cathedral-gloom Of forests immemorial t Noble sport Soar-hunting ! yet that furious charge, the last Of the dead monster there had cut it short For me, and once for all, belike^. Had not his headlong force impaled The savage on my tough wood-pike That, propped with planted knee and foot, Its butt against a rata root, From chest to chine right through him pasted ; And nought his inch-thick hide availed, Or ring-like tusks upthrusting through The notches of his foaming lips, By constant whetting planed away To chisel-sharpness at their tips : It -weakened him —the knife-dig, too, He caught when first commenced the fray ; "When, as in haste I sprang astride Tbe narrowed gully— just a ditch With flowering koromiko rich — Between my feet the villain drove, And fierce, vrith short indignant sniffs, And grunts like muttering thunder, strove To gain his haunts beyond the cliffs, And foil the foes he fled from, yet defied. The poem concludes as follows:— Of Amo's life and Banplf's is unrolled ; . ■ - : She and her thoughtful thoughtless Wanderer bold, Slight subjects of a lingering theme, Faintvißions of a too protracted dream, Sink dovm~and like-the ghosts of every-day, - ;

WHEN DtJNEDiBf was in 'a position to supply the Canterbury market the value of the dried fish imported to Lyttelton was at the rate of £1500 a-year. Latterly, however, Otago has consumed the whole of its own produce of this kind, and none has been imported to Canterbury. The demand is, however, likely to be soon supplied by the fishery company. The Scandinavian settlers in the NinetyMile Bush, in the North Island, have turned out very valuable, sober, and industrious settler?, and excellent axemen. Their huts .are pictures of cleanliness. The women engage in spinniDg with the old fashion jennies or wheels, and knit socks and stockiDgs, which they sell at very reasonable prices. They are also excellent hands at flax mat making.