THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 28, 1 February 1873, Page 4

TH E WEEK.

I don't think anyone can find fault with the closing week for having been productive of too much excitement either in the way of business or pleasure, still, however, there is one circumstance that must not be allowed to pass unnoticed, namely, the fact of tenders being called for the construction of the Nelson and Foxhill railway, from which we may of course presume that the works are to be commenced without delay, and, let us hope, to be carried out in a manner the reverse of leisurely. Two years of leisure may surely be looked upon as completely justifying a few months of action, so by the end of the year we may expect to see ali the earthworks, &c, of the thirteen miles at the Foxhill end completed. I suppose, though, that when we are able to get into a train and roll away comfortably to Foxhill, we shall scarcely be satisfied with that small portion of the railway that we all want to Bee extended to the other side of the Island, but shall want to have communication opened up with the interior and our western goldfields. Already we are anxious to see this great work entered upon, but when our appetites for inland steam communication are whetted, as they certainly will be by this first little dose that is to be administered to us, we shall cry out for more with a voice that wil), it is to be hoped, he not only heard but heeded. *

Did anyone evef meet anybody who derived true enjoyment from attending a public dinner ? I never did. By enjoyment I mean real pleasure ; not that passive yielding to a fancied duty , which compels you to go, and induces you the next day when asked how the affair went off, to reply, " Ob, we spent a very nice evening." I don't think I can claim acquaintance with any one individual who, if he had his choice, choice would leave his own dinner table to attend a public one, and yet we all do go, and shall, probably, continue to go to the end of the chapter. This is one of the strange anomalies in human nature that we see every day but are totally unable to account for. You are accustomed to your late dinner or tea, as the case may be, after which you spend a quiet evening, sip your glass of toddy, and go to bed feeling comfortable and at peace with all the world, but some festive occasion arises, and, seeing a public dinner advertised to commemorate it, you straightway purchase a ticket, put on your evening clothes, and go to it. Once there, you feel ' tbat you are expected to drink your share of wine, so, determining -to be temperate, you call for a bottle of Australian, take the greater portion of it, and, as a natural consequence, go to bed with a stomach ache, or you indulge in a few glasses of sherry and wake the next morning with a headache, x ff you- happen to be of a retiring disposition and unaccustomed, to speaking in public, you may 'be quite sure that; before you have been in the room many minutes, a slip of paper will be put "into ybur hand "with the chairman's compliments," the meaning of which is that you have to propose a toast. All your enjoyment, if you anticipated any, is gone at once,. and the whole of the dinner and dessert time you are silent and thoughtful, being engaged in arranging a neat aad effective little speech j every word ofiwhichvjmeses' complete^ mind as soon as you rise to speak. Ton stammer out a few words, try to smile aud

look at your ease, being all the time conscious thatTyourfattempt is.a signal failure, ■ and sit dovfnjv ith the;comfor ting assurancei that you' have made a thorough , fool of yourself. And yet, you, my good- friend, who have experienced this sort of thingover and oyer agaiD, will go to the next public dinner.that is given, and the' one after that, and so on, and. so on, but if I mistake not, . thoughts something similar to those I have jotted down will pass through your t mind on every such occasion. [The foregoing paragraph was, written some three .orTfojor;,. days since, and on revising it, I feel compelled to admit that it partakes.tq a trifling ex-., tent of the acidity of Australian wine, but I will let it pass, even though it should lay me open to a charge of heterodoxy from every inveterate dinner-goer in the place,]

" How happy could I be with either, Were t'other .dear charmer away."

I am a little at a loss to know how to dispose ot myself on the public holiday on Monday next, since two attractions, differing from one another, if they do differ at all, in degree only, will be. drawing rhe in opposite directions. Heads or tails; Oddfellows or Foresters, which Ib it to be ? At present I know not how to decide. I wonder if, in my perplexity, some modern Solomon were to threaten to cut me in two, whether either, and if so, which of the two Friendly Societies would interfere to prevent my bisection. I wish I could ascertain this without going through all the. disagreeable preliminaries. To the invitation of the more charitably disposed towardsme I certainly should respond.

The Nebraska, with a month or two's mails was due At- Auckland last Monday, but it is scarcely necessary. to. remark that her arrival is to be included among the events that did not happen this week.

In his monthly meteorological report for December, Dr Hector has the following : — Earthquakes reported— -At Foxtbh, at 4.14 a.m. on 4tb, slight; Wanganui, at 4.19 a.m. on 10th, slight ; Wellington, 9.56 p.m. on 14th, very slight: Nelson, 9.58 p.m. on 14th, smart. On 15tb, strong magnetic currents reported at Napier, Wellington, White's Bay, Christchurch, and Blenheim, affecting telegraph wires, and stopping work; also on 18th. similar occurrence on wires at Nelson, Dunedin, and White's Bay. Auroras — Bealey, 17th and 18th; Dunedin, 17th and 18th, Southland, 2nd, 17lb, 18th, 19th, and 31st — very remarkable on 17th. MeteorsAuckland, 3rd, brilliant.

In urging harbor works at Lyttelton, a correspondent of the Lyttelton Times says: — " Dunedin is progressing, by harbor works of magnitude, towards becoming the port of Canterbury, as it is already the depot for a very Jarge proportion of the imports consumed here. Port Chalmers is in almost every respect a complete wet dock. Ships can discharge a cargo there now, while our ships are rolling gunwale under, unapproachable by lighters in tbe finest of weather during our prevailing north-east gales. What is the consequence ? Any Dunedin merchant, with only an average capacity for business, can actually supply this market from Port Chalmers with the very goods that are on board vessels in Lyttelton, especially consigned to this Province. "

Mr. H. A. Atkinson, M.H.R., met the Hawera electors on the 18th. During the course of his address he said that party spirit in the House was stronger, and more bitter tban he had ever known it to ba; perhaps the frequent changes in the Government during the last session was the cause of this. And as for the charges often made against Messrs Stafford and Yogel concerning their anxiety to hold office, merely for the loaves and fishes thereof, they were without foundation. There was! no doubt, had either Mr Stafford, or Mr. Yogel wished to hold office only, in the present state of the House they could easily have done so. It was his opinion that these gentlemen sought . to . take a leading part iv the Government, not for the sake of office alone, but with tbe I laudable ambition to advance and establish the prosperity of the colony. With regard to constitutional chaDges he would never consent to have the question of the provinces decided without a disolutioD. He woul4 go down to the House next session prepared to give Mr. Waterhouae a fair , trial and support if be still continued to act in the independent way he had hitherto done.