THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 39, 14 February 1874, Page 2

THE WEEK.

I am not quite sure which of tbo two positions I should prefer, that of a ; Premier at a dinner party or a parson in tbfe;pjulpit. la* both you are able to say pretty well what you like wiLhout the fear of anyone getting up to contradict or argue with you, but the former is, the . greater rarity, and therefore I think I should, take it for choice. There muat be something very delightful, especially if you are at all cynically disposed, in getting up and telling your hearers that you have no intention of saying anything that could [O3sibly wound the feelings of the most susceptible among them, and then proceeding with cruel 'deliberation to dissect them, not with a sharp knife artistically handled, but rather in the fashion of a mastiff tearing a foe to pieces. You watch with intense pleasure the contortions of your audience, and take a peculiar delight in the spasmodic motion of the bands and feet which coming in' contact with the table and floor give forth a sound that seems like applause. You are a little surprised to find that what you have eaid is co well received, and ieel encouraged to wind up your speech with a little selfpraise on account of the perspicacity you have displayed in judging that your hearers would far rather hear you honestly abuse them than listen to any meaningless compliments from your slip. You, of course, are fully aware that there is a . delicate vein of irony permeating those last remarks of yours, but you have the gratification of knowing that it is not generally detected, and so you sit down amid thunders of applause, quietly sip your claret, and thiuk unutterable things. But this is speaking in parables, a style of which I do not altogether approve. Nelson people generally will feel well satisfied that the Premier has been amongst them, and that he has had an opportunity of judging for himself what are their wishes with regard to the future. Newspaper reports, paragraphs, and leading articles must have prepared him for the earnestness with which the people of the province are prepared to advocate their claims for assistance from the General Government, but it was far better that he should come and judge for himself. He was heartily welcomed, and from conversations he had with members of the Provincial Executive and with private individuals must have seen that with one consent we are bent upon progress. It was gratifying to his hosts, and do doubt will be so to the public at large, to find that be was prepared to admit our claims, and that he felt justified in saying that he did not see how the General Assembly could possibly ignore them. There can be no doubt whatever that the uanimity that prevails on the question of obtaining a loan, for which the province is prepared to give ample security, went far towards convincing . Mr ;Vogel of our earnestness in the matter, or that it will have considerable influence with the Assembly. rWhere a people are as one man in adopting a certain -line of action it may generally be admitted that they have reason and right at their back. This desire to obtain a loan for opening up the country is no passing fancy, it has been gradually growing and gaining strength, time has shown the reasonableness of it, for as time has passed by new discoveries of mineral wealth have been made, and there now exists no longer <eyen the shadow of a doubt that it is the. right and proper thing to do. Mr Yogel mnst have recognised this during his two days stay here, and we have eivery reason to believe that Nelson Will reap considerable advantages from his. visit. Was there ever known so complicated a bungle as New Zealand has got into over the meeting of Parliament? What a theme for newspaper writers not only in this colony but also in Australia and even in England where, depend upon it, the matter will attract attention, for such a thing was never heard of before. " Twill be recorded for a precedent," and to New Zealand belongs the doubtful honor of having furnished such a precedent. As a friend of mine remarked to me yesterday — <( What a lot of two guineas it will put into the pockets of leader writers." The whole surroundings are so exquisitely ludicrous, that even although the consequences may be serious, it is difficult to forbear from smiling es we think over the affair. The Parliament is summoned for a certain date, but it is well known that it is not expected to meet then. Still the formal proclamation of further prorogation has not appeared, so meet it must. Everybody seems to have forgotten all about it until on the day previous to that on which the session should commence a newspaper paragraph calls attention to the fact. Then all is hurry, bustle, and confusion. The two Speakers are down South, with nothing further from their thoughts than the gowns and bands of office, the Premier is banqueting at Nelson, and with him the clerk of Parliament, and, to crown all, the Governor's yacht with his Excellency on board is reported on that very day as having passed the Bluff oaimly cruising eastward. The wise men of old came from the east. Sir James Fergusson will have to sail very far to tbe east before he acquires sufficient wisdom to enable him to see his way out of the difficulty in which the colony has been landed by the ; absence of his autograph at the foot of an important document, which

all this time is reported to be quietly reposing iv the pigeon holes of the Hokitiku postofiice. Imagine a whole, country, Governor, Ministry, Speakers,-, Clerk, and Representatives all for-' getting on what day the Parliament was to be. opened. What a . splendid joke would have been raised at the expense of the Superintendent and Provincial Council of *• Sleepy Hollow " had a timilar fiasco occurred ia Nelson. And the poor Governor .is all this lime sailing about in the Blanche utterly unconscious of the tremendous mess in which the colony over which he rules, has become icvolved. They say that he is a mau who occasionally lets his angry passion rise. I should give him a very wide bmh if I were standing with him on the deck of the Blanche when she cast anchor in some harbor within reach of the telegraph wires. I don't know, but I expect his language will be slightly unparliamentary. This; however, will to some extent be excusable, seeing that the Attorney-General has said that the Parliament is not in session. F.