THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 128, 30 May 1874, Page 2

THE WEEK.

At the present moment I am supremely happy, for we have at last secured that inestimable booh — Responsible Government. It iB .rue that we havo no government at all juat now, but perhaps we con tide over a Sunday without one, and just think of the intense delight we can all experience in watching the game of chess that is being played in the meantime; King's pawn 2, Queen's Knight to Queen's Bishop 3rd, and so on. Somebody will be checkmated, bnt who will it be ? I think I know one who will be driven into a corner, but I am not going to give the tip to anyone else for I want to make some bets, anJ to improve my financial position by the political situation. What a series of events we have passed through since last I wrote ! There has been * the second reading of the Bill that is* to forge us ahead and make Otago and Canterbury look out lest we 'should paes them, and there haß been tbe committal of the' Bill. Some irreverent writer alluded to it in the early part of the week, as a mouse that as soon as the mountain had given birth to it was to drop into hot water. This made the father very angry, but I am not sure that the heartless critic has not established his character as a prophet. It did get into very hot water, so hot that all the hair was scalded off, and the cats pounced down upon it and gnawed a bone out here, and clawed a piece out there, and if it had not been tbat the rats came to its assistance and helped it through its troubles, I really don't know how it coald have survived. As it is, I am quite sure papa must have, some difficulty in recognising the d&rliiig of hie bearfL What a funny x state of things pre.xails. Special privileges appear to be confwre.d upon members of a Government wfrjch must make the office of an Executi.e^ Councillor au object of ambition to every thorough-bred politician. Siting on the Govsrnment benches at one'&our, and taking part part in an Opposition caucus the next. What a magnificent opportunity of studying both sides of the question. "Put not your trust in princes" So said David, but it wasn't quite fair of him to single out men of royal breeding as being special objects of suspicion. But then he hadn't had the experience of which wo can boa3t. He never saw the Nelson Provincial Council in session. Where is it all going to end? Who are to form the new Ministry? Mr O'ponor has been sent for as we all knowjNind there is a talk of the late Provincial Treasurer taking part in the administration of affairs, but this must clearly be a mistake. Neither Mr O'Gonor or Mr Shephard .have*, been at ali dt-icate in expressing th4 opinion that ea_„ entertains for the other, so that it is^uito -napoaalbio _ nt thoy oan be found waking together. lam not qui.© sure though about this, for it has just occurred to mo'^fchat a correspondence not altogether friendly in its -Xone once took piace between Mr Curtis' and Mr Shephard, and yet the flayed party was not deterred by it from accepting office under the flayer. I confess that I get more and more puzzled over the affair as I meditate upon it. Every -/ thing seems mixed and jumbled togeth/_f^ and — I withdraw the game of chess simile that I made use of id the early part ol this letter — the situation reminds me more of what schoolboys call a i," scrummage" in a football match. On Monday night perhaps somebody will score a goal. Our laws are said to be framed for the benefit of the poor ns well as tbe rich. I take leave to doubt it Why, I will explain in a little anecdote. A woman has a row with her husband, and he, wilh a view to bringing her to a sense of her duties as a wife, drives a knife, fortunately a blunt one, into her back piercing her between the shoulders twice. The injured party — physically injured, I mean — lays an information against, her lord and master^. a_d the case comes before the Magistrate's Court. When there, Bhe refuses to give her evidence, and in consequence of that refusal is committed to gaol for a certain period. That's all right enough, for if she had uxorious scruples agains . bringing her "good gentleman " intoHfbuble, she should have duly considered them before placing the matter in the bands of the police. Four and twenty hours residence in prison brings abont a modification of the views she entertains of the duties she owes to her husband, and she consents to givevher evidence, on the strength of which, and that of his daughter and others, he is committed for trial. At this stage of the proceedings it becomes necessary to make certain tbat the wife acd daughter should be in attendance at the next sitting of tbe Supreme Court, and so they are asked to enter into a bond for their appearance. But tbey are poor, and apparently friendless, for no one wiil become surety for them, and consequently they are packed off to gaol in order to make sure that their evidence shall be forthcoming at the proper time. The moral of this is : — If somebody should come into your room and stab you in the back, bea_v.it quietly, and don't send for a policeman*_-til you have calculated your resources and the number of your friends. If the former are at a low ebb, and the latter but few, get a little sticking plaster and put it on your wounds if they are not serious, and say nothing at all about them, or if they are, why just turn over on your side and die, for, if you let the police know about it, you are committing the insane act of j

voluntarily sentencing yourself to imprisonment /or any period not excaeding four months. Better by far benr the stabs quietly, and if anyone notices nn awkardnees in your gait, say that you are suffering from an attack of lumbago, or rheumatism, or something of the kind, but don't, if you value youi> liberty, let it be known what is reajly the matter with you. / The public works scheme that is now in vogue in New Zealand has at various times called forth at public .dinners and such like occasions speeches that may be moderately described as ecs'atic. I have read a good many of tbem, but I never met with the equal of tbe following. It was delivered in the Province of Hawkt. s Bay, at tbe celebration of the opening of a railway, by a Mr Worgan, who "was assisted" so the' local paper tells us, "to his crutches by his aged great grandsons." He said: — As the oldest living inhabitant of this, the most prosperous county of New Zealand, I may be pardoned if I crave a little indulgence. (Continued applause.) For many long and weary yeurs I was buoyed up with the hope that under Providence il- might be spared to see that which you, gentlemen, have tbis day seen — a return train from the Paki Paki. Deprived, as I have been for thirty years of my sight, I can hardly yet realise the great aad glorious fact of the completion of this truly marvellous work. Were it not for the fact "that this truly splendid achievement ba3 beep vouched for by the sons and grandsons of many of those early settlers whom it has been my privilege to have been connected witb, and to whom to know waa to revere, I should have received with incredulity the astounding statements I have heard. Finis coronat opus, and I feel that I can now go to my grave in peace, lulled in my last moments by the scream of tbe engine, and the sweet lullaby of the porter's bell. (Loud and prolonged applause.) [Here the aged gentleman, quite overcome, was led from the Hall.] When my last moments come, I think, if I am living, or perhaps I should say dying, in the neighborhood of a railway, tbat tbe greatest favor that the engineer or porter could bestow upon me would be the stifling, of the scream of the engine by iae former, aud the muffling of his bell by the latter. But then our tastes are not all alike. F.