THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 56, 6 March 1875, Page 2

THE WEEK.

It is satisfactory to learn that our Premier has arrived safely in England, and is working hard for the good of the colony he represents, for people were beginning to get anxious about him, and to wonder where he wa3 and what he waa doiog. In these days of telegraphic communication between all parts of the world it is thought strange and we begin to suspect that something must have gone wrong if we do Dot hear in a very few weeks what in the old timea would have taken as many mouths (o reach up. And so the tidings of Mr Vogel have been received with a sense of relief, although he has not much to tell us, except that hitherto ho has not been successful in his mission to the home country. However we may rtsfc satisfied that if the loan is to be raised our Premier is the man lo do it. He may not Biiine in making postal contracts but hecertainly his done well in his former negotiations for supplying New Zealand with money. Let us hope that.be will be equally successful on the present occasions for the colony ia beginning to want the rash. It was some little time before the people of Nelson could be persuaded that a Hotticultural Society might be successfully established in this town, but after a while they made up their minds that it would at least be worth trying, and the result has been that three very excellent shows have been held, and such collections of fruits, flowers, and vegetables have been brought together as have somewhat istonished (hose who at one time were doubtful as fo the wisdom of the experiment, It has been Bhown what can be produced by our gardeners, amateur

as well as professional, people have been brought together to view the exhibits, and the shows have been the occasion of some very pleasant meetings. If it were for this aloue the Society Is deserving of encouragement, for a good deal of pleasure has been purchased for a very small amount of money. After the success that has Clowned their efforts so far, they should find but little difficulty in disposing of their tickets next year. Wellington people, or at least Wellington papers, thoroughly enjoy laughing at what they call the somnolency of Nelson, and they appear to take a special delight in referring to it as " Sleepy Hollow." It affords them so much pleasure that I should be sorry to see them deprivedof it. There is something pleasant in observing the self-satisfaction of a man who thinks he has said a really good thing, and this is what the Wellington papers seera to experience when calling our little community "sleepy." Now, Wellington hos fairly earned the right to comment on our drowsiness ia some matters. For many years Nelson lias been steadily going on in a sleepy, dreamy sort of way, giving ihe children of the province a good elementary education, and endeavoring by so doiog to render them respectable and desirable members of society. Until ihe lnst very few years, Wellington, on the oilier hand, hft9 been actively and busily engaged in doing nothing in the satr.e direction, " Oh, bother the children, let them get along as their fathers did before them. They didn't get much education in the old country, and what do their children want of it in a new one !" Such appeared to be the idea of the Wellington Provincial statesmen on the subject, and so while Nelson was teaching her children in that sleepy way peculiar to her Wellington took an active delight in seeing hera growing up as dolts end ignor^minguaes. But within the last few years our neighbors across the Straits be^an to get somewhat ashamed of the manner in which they were treating the youth of the province, and now they are all agog for teaching them iu the quickest possible manner, and upon the mosS improved principles. One of the latest notions is that of raising a contingent of pupil teachers, who are to receive special instruction fur the wotk they are eventually to take in hand from the schoolmasters. This instruction is to be given after the ordinary school hours, and is to occupy one hour in each day, or five hours per week. The teachers are to be paid for their overtime at the liberal rate of about seven whole pence par hour. That is to say that if, after a year's special tuition at the rate of five hours per wetk, they can produce two pupil teachers who shall be able to pass the examination required by the Inspect if, they ate to be entitled to receive the handsome sum of £8. I wonder if I could persuhde anybody to come and dig in my garden, clean out my Btable, or do any such work for five hours a v/i ek for the sum of £8 a year! But the Education Board of Wellington expects to get its future schoolmasters trained to fill their important and responsible positions for such a paltry sum. Someinquisi i?e persons, however, ask this pertinent question • — lf iha tutor's services are valued at so low a rato, what will be the worth of those who are taught by them ? I am not sure that it is not well to be sleepy if wide-awakedness is to :ead to such absurdities as this. Several shillings a year would be saved to the proprietors of newspapers if somebody woul«l be good enough to shoot all those moas that haunt tie plains and hills of the Canterbury pro. vince. lam not prepared to aßßert that the brutes are not already extinct, but if it could be made known beyond douht, once and for all, that the moa was a thing of the past, it would be gratifying to those who have to pay for telegrams, if not to thoso who rend them. It is reported that a gentleman who holds a high office in the Canterbury Institute, was persuaded many years ago to send to the Vienna Museum a beef bone of very respectable proportions, as one of the leg bones of a moi, bu', of late, that ambitious province hus not been content with fossicking pfoout nmong dry bones, but wants to lay claim to having some of the birds all-alive-oh within its boundaries Smith caught two a few months ago, but forgot to tether them safely, and ao they made their escape before another living scul had.no opportunity of seoiog them, aui now Brown, or Jones, or Kobinson, or somebody else has discovered suspicious-looking tra< ks, which some more matter-of-fact individual, after the important uews has been telegraphed throughout the length and breadth of the colony, pronouuees to be those of a wallaby. I wish the Canterbury people, like those of every other provioce, would allow themselves to be convinced that the moaa are all dead aud gone. It would save the operators at the telegraph oifices some work, enJ the public generally the bother of reading a lot of nonsense. F.