THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 2, 2 January 1875, Page 2

THE WEEK.

The new year has opened somewhat inauspiciously, and harvesters were not well pleased with the threatening sky that ushered in the Ist of January, nor were holiday-keepers altogether satisfied with the prospects of a favorable day for the Caledonian Gathering:, which has now become one of our recognised institutions. On the other hand, the growers of hops uttered not a murmur as the rain fell at first in gentle showers and gradually increased until it became a regular soaking downpour. To these, rain meant so many pounds per acre, and no doubt many of them were sufficiently selfish to regard it in that lighc alone, and, with this as a set-off, were prepared to bear with equaminity their own disappointment and that of other people in being deprived of a pleasant new year's holiday. Mixed* then, were the feelings with which the advent of 1875 was regarded, and this was probably emblematic of the varied experiences that each one of us will have to look back upon at its close. Our local papers occasionally publish extracts from the reports of the meet* ings of the Wellington City Council, in the hope, no doubt, that they may act as warnings to that body which supervises the affairs of the town of Nelson. Now, although there is occasionally a want of order in the proceedings of our Council, the members have not arrived at that stage of rowdiness which has been reached by their brethren of Wellington, but the discipline among the subordinates is not exactly of that character which should mark the relations between master and servant. In two instances this was shown at the last meeting of the Council. At the previous sitting it had been resolved that the collector of town rates, whose term of office has not yet expired, should be requested to assist in gathering the water rates. On Monday last the following reply was received from that official, to whom the resolution of the Council had been communicated by the Town Clerk. The wording is a little faulty, but not sufficiently so to disguise the meaning: *' Sir — In answer to yourß of the 15th, you state that a request was made to me respecting my collecting the water rates, I cannot accede to it, as my election as rate collector was made before water or gas rates was thought of. My election was to collect the current rates at date, and the sum set down for collecting was agreed to by me. Such work I am now doing, though, legally, I cannoi even demand that, as you yourself have been elected to collect all rates." (Signed by the colleotor.) The Councillors smiled when this was read, but said nothing. I, who was present, laughed in my sleeve, and thought a good deal. It did not seem to me that it was exactly the kind of letter to be addressed by a public servant to his employers. Later on in the same sitting, the Mayor said, or read something to which another of the employees of the Council took exception, whereupon the servant, as has already been reported, informed the Head of the Council that he was a "falsifier" and a "counterfeit ot a gentlemen." Ignorant as I am of tbe proper manner in which the proceedings of such a body as the City Council should be conducted, I cannot bring myself to believe that, under any provocation whatever, language such as this — considering the relative positions of the two individuals concerned — should have been suffered to pass without notice, but, so far as I am able to discover, neither the Mayor nor the Councillors paid the slightest attention to it. Now I should very much like to know what we are coming to if this sort of thing is allowed. It is true that one of the Councillors is reported to have said:— "I hardly think this is tbe proper way to do business in the Council," but it is doubtful to what he referred. If by *• this" he intended to include all that had taken place during the evening, I am quite disposed to agree with him, and I think a good many will be of the same opinion. Retributive justice seems to have

overtaken that prince of evil doers, Thomas Sullivan. The murderer of an inoffensive, powerless old man he was proved to be; a traitor to his comrades in crime he did not hesitate to become in the hope of saving his own neck by so doing. And — as we all know — be waa saved from tbe gallows, and after a few years' confinement was turned loose on the world The Government tried to palm him off on the Americans, but tbe people of New Zealand did not care to lay themselves open to the retaliation that might, and probably would, follow such a proceeding, and so the murderer of James Battle was, after a time, smuggled off to England. Arrived there, he soon became aware that go where he might, his footsteps were dogged, and that not an action, scarcely even a word or. a look escaped the observation of the detectives who were on his track. For one whose deeds were those of darkness this exposure to the light was intolerable, the surveillance under which he felt himself to be was more than he could bear, and bo be determined to seek refuge in his old haunts in the colony of Victoria. But, ere he had been there many days, he was recognised and brought before a Police Court, not charged this time with any new crime but simply with having been a criminal in bygone days, and by the magistrates was ordered to be sent back to New Zealand. But not a shipmaster was to be found who would undertake to convey him to the scene of the most cruel of all his known crimes, and so in Victoria he still remains in custody. What a life ! Hunted down by the police wherever he goes; bitterly cursed by the populace whenever he appears in public, who shall say that Sullivan has not many a time ere this envied the fate of his three accomplices whose bones now lie within the precincts of the Nelson gaol, after having paid the penalty of their crimes by an ignominious death ? Bitter is tbe punishment of this Maungatapu murderer even upon earth. A modest little paragraph has informed the Nelson newspaper readers that, as the result of some five or six weeks work, between ten and eleven thousand ounces of gold have been forwarded from Reefton and the Lyell to the nearest port, and nobody seems to take the slightest notice of tbe fact. Now, at this holiday season, when everyone has plenty of time to spare, let us go into a little calculation. It is always easy to convert wheat into gold, but, as a change, we will reverse the process. In round numbers, valued at £3 15s an ounce, these ten or eleven thousand ounces represent about £40,000. To form an equivalent to this sum in grain would require, at 5a per bushel, some 160,000 bushels. Suppose that quantity of grain were carried on the Canterbury railways in six weeks, I think we should be told something about it in the newspapers of that province, indeed it is open to doubt whether the Press Agency, which, as we all know, never transmits news except of the greatest importance, would not deem itself justified in telegraphing the fact all over the colony. But not much is said about (en or eleven thousand ounces of gold coming from one comparatively small district of the Nelson province. Perhaps this iB because we are so usod to if. F. (For remainder of News see fourth page.)