THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 69, 20 March 1875, Page 2

THE WEEK.

The best news the people of the town of Nelson have received for a long time bas been the announcement lately made that the money is obtained for tin construction of a wharf and dock and other harbor improvements. When these works are completed we certainly shall be deprived of one of the curiosit'us, if not of the lions, of Nelson, for it has b?en a source of wonder to all who have visited tho port at low water how the present wharf elands at all, many of the piles being in some places worn down to about the thickness of the pen with which lam now writing. It is a strange sight, and the safety of those who have occasionally to walk from one end to the other will most assuredly be consulted by the substitution of a solid stone wharf for that very shaky structure at which steamers visiting the harbor are now moored. Our present Government is in luck's way, having just stepped into office at a time when more money was available than has been the case since the good old days of the Amuri land Bales. What it all amounts to is perhaps not generally known, so that a little information on the subject may prove acceptable. In the first place there is £8100 which the province receives under the Immigration and Public Works Act; then there is a sum of £3658, under the "Payment to Provinces Act ;" then £50,000 under tbe " Provincial Public Works Advancement Act," which is being devoted to opening up road communication with the Buller Valley, and now we are to get the provincial loan of £30,000, of which £3000 has already been expended upon the Lunatic Asylum, while the balance of £27,000 is to be laid out upon harbor improvement!?. When the Executive meet the Provincial Council at the end of next mouth, they should do 80 with beaming countenances as they point to the numerous publio works they have undertaken and successfully carried through with the General Government advances, for all the sums enumerated above are in addition to the ordinary provincial revenue. The interest that is beiog taken in the Easter Encampment is so much greater than that which is usually displayed over the annual colonial prizefiring that it suggests the question whether the volunteer system would not be rendered far more popular than it now is by the substitution for the annual prize-firing of an occasional central encampment for the whole colonial force. In the former, some halfdozen, or perhaps a dozeu, meu in each company inteiest themselves, and in preparing for the competition devote a considerable amount of time to practice. On the otlier hand if there were a general meeting of all the companies say once in two years, each individual volunteer would feel that he had a personal instead of a vicarious interest in what was going on. In the meantime these provincial gatheriugs, which cost the country but a mere trifle, are a move in the right direction. That which is to take place next week promises to be a great success, and if it should prove as popular as ia antici-

pated will prove an argument in favor of making such meetings more comprehensive. This year we are to have a few men and a couple of guns from .Wellington. Next year perhaps we may have double or treble the number not only from Wellington but from other provinces, and in the following season the Nelson men may perhaps be required to be the visitors instead of the visited. Tbis would be the means of creating a feeling of unity among the volunteers, and giving the service more of a colonial than a local character. But if we want to prove that our volunteers are really popular we must be able to show to the world a prize list such as that which was offered to an English Company (the 18lh Essex Rifle Volunteers) at a recent rifle competition. The prizes were offered by various individuals, as can at once be seen by a perusal of the list which contains ths most extraordinary medley of inducements to shoot straight that ever met the eye. I will select a few of them, the mention of which will, I think, amuse my readers, No. 1 consisted of a barometer and a bottle of port wine, presented by two different individuals; No 3, the gift of one man, was a tin of biscuits, and a book of poems — I wonder which was the drier of the two. The winner of No 10 had nine gallons of ale nnd a gallon of gin to carry home with him, while that of No 11 was burdened with nothing more than a'pair of trousers. No 12 was won, let us hope, by one having pretensions to being "a swell," for it comprised an umbrella and a pair of hair brushes; No 14 was certainly useful at that time of the year, consisting as it did of a ton of coals. The lucky competitor who carried off No 16 should have had a taste for gardening, for a bushel of potatoes, a fork, spade, and shovel fell to his share. No 18 was a strange mixture, half a bushel of flour and a silk hat being awarded to the winner; then there was 24, a family bible, which came between 23, a box of cigars, and 25, a bottle of ginger brandy, ditto cherry brandy, ditto whisky. The next consisted of two bottles of gin and a dozen photographs: and then we come to 29, a shoulder of mutton and a cricket bat. If the former was like a good many shoulders of mutton I have tasted in Nelson, a cricket bat would be a very fitting article to accompany it, for a thorough good hammering would tend to scrunch up the gristle and make the meat passably tender. A " ped " of herrings and a waistcoat became the property of the next successful competitor, and the last carried home iv triumph a halfbushel loaf, a pair of ladies boots, and a wooden spoon. Now, after reading the above, I have come to the conclusion that volunteeriug is decidedly popular in the county of E3sex. What if residents in Nelson nnd the suburbs were to contribute an equally queer mixture of prizes to bo competed for at the camp on Saturday next? I think there would be somo fun attached both to the firing and tho presentation of the prizes. F.