THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 305, 26 December 1874, Page 2

THE WEEK.

One more Christmas Day baa come and gone, ant has bet n celebrated in a manner calculated to revive some of the oIJ home associations. It we could only substitute a fine clear frosty attr.ospb.ere for a burning sun, the resemblance to the great festive day. as it is known in Englanfl, would ce-tainly be more complete, and, ag some people might think, more agreeable, but this ia beyond our power, so we ranst c'en submit to wearing thin coats and white waistcoats instead of thick i weeds and overcoats; to seeing our churchei gaily decorate 1 with imny colored flowers instead of the bright green holly with ita scarlet berries, and the sombre yew branches; and to making our Christma3 dinners, if we wish to really enjoy them, off cold lamb and sala<l, followed by ( herry pie, in the place of a smoking joint of roast beef with iiaasual concomitant, a blazing plum pudding. Still, thtre are ninny of us who, although dearly loving the festival aa celebrated in England when the thermometer ia s-tne twenty or thirty degree a below what it registered yesterday, can contrive to enjoy ourselves and to spend a " merry Christmas " even at midsummer, and so it happened that, generally speaking, Nelson people woke up this morning with lhe conviction that on the whole they had passed a very plea«ant Christmas Day. To those who are churchgoers, a very pleasing impression must have been convey el by the result of the efforts of th se who had devoted so much time and labor to the decorations of their respective churches, seme of which were ornamented with the utmost taste and skill. Being essentially a feast day the butchers have something to say to Christmas being celebrated in aa orthodox.manner, aud no one who went the round of the shops on Wednesday evening can have a word to nay against the manner in whic!» they performed their dutieß, but how they did this has already been recorded, and needs no further comment at my hands. It sorely must he a little humiliating to our farmers and graziers to find that Wanganui sheep figured so largely in the late exhibition of Chrittmas meaf. It Is all very well that a few boat-loa ; s of mutton should reach us from theace occasionally to keep the market stocked —though it is bad enough to have to depend upon outsiders for cur supply of meat at any time— but when we find that on such an occasion as the present we have to go elsewhere for such stock as is deemed necessary to m»lre a creditable show in our butchers' shops, there is ample evidence that somethiug is wren? in the state of Nehon. If our breeders of sheep are at all ambitious thfy shou'd take ca^e for the future to be able t> supply as flae sheep and cattle a» (an b« imported from any other part of New Zeaian 1. There is no reason whatever why they Bbould not. A dttle juiicioMs attention to the breed of the flocks is all that is requir d. A fortn'ght sgo I trade a few remarks which had bf en suggested to my mind by the transit of Venus, and I recorded the e*pi r ences of a friend of mine who had careful y observed the phenomenon, although, unfortunately, he was not provided with the proper instruments, no care having been ta ! «n to establish an observatory in the most favorable epnt in JNew Zealand for such purposes. I wanted to cay a gooi deal about j the transit and the thoughts to which it gate i riie, but, finding that I had nofc sufficient ! words at my command, I wisely refrained from attempting a task to which 1 Oil uot I feel equal. lam tlieref're very p!eaee3 to ! find that tie Taranaki Herali had upon iU staff a writer who was more than f qnal to the occasion He discourses thus:— " All real and unsophisticated lovera of the grand, the sublime, and the beautiful looked out with intens.st anxiety for the morning of the ninth, but were precipi ated into the pro- ! found depths of an everlasting despair to find that the chances of seeing the transit of Vcnua were very doubtful About three o'clock, however, the cloudg began to break and for a quarter of an hour a hopeful, cheer- ! in?, heart-easing, exhilarating view was : obtained. The sight will never be erased from the mind, or blottei from the memory. When the planet first struck the eye, she looked like a cricket tall passing over a liquid globe of fire,; but afterwards i as the eky ceared, its beauties increased, until the ineffable sight caused ecstatic pleasure, which beggars language to pourtray. Venus seemed to dance in the sun with unearthly delight to herself and her beholders. It seemed like one of those rare privileges given to mortals at great intervals, to behold and wonder at the mighty and glorious works of the Great Architect of the Universe; and to those who are firm believers in a future and happier state, such sights must cause a thrill of prospeciive joy, knowing it to be but a glimpse of such glories. The thoughts of such amazing sights should constant joys create." Exactly so. That's just what 1 meant, only I did not know how to put it into words. What a fool I was not to revel with ecstatic pleasure in the ineffable sight of a cricket ball dancing iv a liquid globe of fire with unearthly delight to itself and its beholders. Eccentricities of this kind may be pa'donable in the heavenly bodies, but let us hope> for tho sake of those who are to take part in the match to-day, that terrestia! cricket balls may not take to comporting themselves in a like manner, or it might be awkward for the players. F.