The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1872

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 272, 15 November 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1872

Mr Shephakd is a complete enigma. After patiently listening to his clever, bat somewhat laborious speech, which, by the way, was a little too plentifully interlarded with high-sounding asseverations that under no circumstances whatever could he be induced to do that which he did not conceive to be his duty, ■we left the room in a painful state of doubt as to the direction in which this stern sense of duty might on future occasions lead him, nor could ■we entirely free our minds of the suspicion that, finding himself placed in an awkward position, he had determined by ooe desperate effort to attempt to escape from it at all risks to bis character for stability or consistency. Finding that he had got into bad odour Vy his second vote, he deemed it wise to take the bull by the horns, and in order to justify himself in regard fo the action taken by him in upsetting the Stafford Ministry, he strove to prove that he hnd done wrong, cr at least, acted injudiciously, in the first place in voting against the Fox-Vogel Government. Sorh at least is the interpretation we feel constrained to put upon his elaborate defence, and for this we shall proceed to give our reasons. To be as brief as possible. Mr. Stafford having moved :— " That in the opinion o( this House, the administration by the present Government, of the public works and immigration policy has been unsatisfactory," Mr Shephard voted with tha Ays, because, as he now tells up, Mr Fox bad displayed an inclination to deprive the Province of Nelson of a portion of its territory, while at the same time, if any importance ig to be attached to the unmitigated praise which, in another p*rt of his speech, he bestowed upon Mr Yogel, he must have been thoroughly satisfied with that administration, seeing that Mr Yogel w»p, 88 is universally allowed to have been the case, the moving spirit in the Cabinet of which Mr Fox was only the nominal hear). Again, he informed his hearers that he could nor, and he believed the country could not, have complete confidence in any Ministry which did not include Mr Vo^el and Mr M*LeaD,*and yet when he assisted to turn them out he must have been perfectly well aware that there was no possibility of their holding portfolios in the Government that was to succeed that which bis vote had helped to destroy. Once more. There could have been no doubt whatever in the mind of any reasonaWe man that Mr Fox being defeated, Mr Stafford would succeed him, but what was Mr Shephard's opinion of the coming Premier ? " For four years be bad held the strong conviction that to no hands in New Zealand could the affairs of the colony be entrusted with less safety than to those of Mr Stafford." His vote, then, on that occasion was given with the full knowledge that he was assisting to eject from office Messrs. Yogel and M'Lean, without whom he believed no Ministry could be formed possessing the confidence of the country, for the purpose of placing in office a Government of which the head was to be Mr. Stafford, than whom no one in the colony was, in his opinion, more unfitted to be entrusted with ' the reina of power. He wished to turn out Mr Fox, -whom he trusted little, in order that Mr. Stafford, whom he trusted less, might, perhaps for two or three years, occupy his seat, and although this could not be effected without' depriving the couotiy of the services of those issentials to a good Government— Mr. Yogel and ; Mr. M^an-^be did noi hesitate ..to. accomplish hie purpose. -Although; from our point of yiew, Mr. , vShephard; was not inflictiDg any very serious injury upon the country in assisting to defeat the Eox-VogelAdmioistration, from his qwo/he must, have beeu doing that whiefc merited the severest xeWure; ■'.yjje weVe "fit bpioio^

into office, whereas he, on his own showing, was doing that which he was convinced was unsafe for the colony, whpn raising him to the Premiership Mr. idea of doii>g his duty wouM appear to have been at (hut time a Mule wavering and uncertain, and calculated to lead him into all kinds of extraordinary and inconceivable positions, While listening to him on Wednesday evening, our thoughts involuntarily wandered back to a popular entertainment that was recently given at tho Oddfellows' Hall, and we could not but call to mind the supple movements and ecoentric cont rtions of -the flexible "* Master AM Right." That entertainment wss an amusing one, and an you watched itin sirange performances of the apparently bonfleßs boy, you could hardly help envying the facility with which be now converted himself into a, rolling bull, now doubled his thickness by reducing his height by one half, and yet, en returning home and thinking over the exhibition of such unusual powers, you scarcely regretted being in possession ot a backbone, or that, unlike the little acrobat, you were forced 10 always hold yourself uptight. We listened attentively to Mr. Sheplißrd's speech ; we have thought much over it since it was delivered, and still, while willing to give him credit for having ucted, as lie himself says, •* straightforwardly," we confess our inability to understand hh actions or the motions that prompted them. Our initial ami final sentences must be the same— Mr Shepherd is an enigma. Man Missing — It is rumored thai William Waiie, the master of the schooner Bonnie Lass, has been missing sino-. Saturday morning, when he left Tutty's Pier Hotel, aB was supposed, for town, since which time nothing has been heard of him. Tlie police are making enquiries in every direction, but hitherto without success. San Franc ip co Mail. — It will be seen by our Wellington telegrams that there is a piobubility of a more efficient nmil service than we have yet been a^ie to boast of, being established between San Francisco and New Zealand, Mr W-bb having parted with his boats and interest to a firm which, frutn the general tenor of the telegram, we presume to be of American origin. Mr, John R. Mabin rppo.rts the following sale of cattle, sheep, &c, yesterday, at Mr. Windlehoru's farm, Kanznu : — Cows, to calve shortly, £5 ss; in full mi-k, £4 ss; 2 year old steers and heifers, in poor condition, 43-*; yearliugp, 30<; cakes, 14*; bull, £4; boar, 31s; sow iv pig, 335; ewpp, sh>irn f 10* 6' ; wither lumbp, eotn^ shorn, 9* 3 1 to 9" 6 I; 7 year old draught gelding, £11 15s; set of trap harness, £2 10s; chaff cutter, £2 s*; plough, £2 15s; cart harness, £3 ss. There wan a large attendance, everything off.red whs soM, aud the pit es realised were satisfactory to the vendor. A Correspondent signing himself "Nemo" writes advocating the establishment of additional baths in Nelson. His letter is long, umi we can only find pp-ioe for an extract from it. He sa> s : — -" Our swimming baths might be rendered a grea< boon if the bottom were cemented, but at present it is simply a pool of dirty water, quite unGt for the purpose intended. A convenient position for hot and cold salt water baths might be easily arranged also; and only after making some such arrangements can our picturesque little city accept the epithet so generally applied to her of " The Sanitarium of New Zealand."