THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 95, 8 April 1876, Page 2

THE WEEK.

The battle between the two knights, which. we were laat week led to ! believe had terminated, has since then broken out afresh, and, although the correspondence has now really come to an end for. the time ifc .is, evident, thafc for the future there is to be war to the knife between them. No quarter is to - be given or. expected on either side, and the House of Representatives will next session be the arena of such a fight as . has nofc yefc taken place within ifcs walls. I took occasion last Saturday to express my own regret, and I believe thafc which is sincerely felt by numerous others, that such a correspondence as had then been published should ever have, passed between two men occupying. 'such high positions, on the ground thafc ifc was calculated t© lower both in the estimation even of their warmest friends, but the concluding telegrams are likely to give rise to such a feeling to a far greater extent than any which had preceded them. The temptation to indulge in ; smart writing, such as might be expected in a newspaper warfare, has been too great for Sir Julius to resist, and, forgetting all that was due to a man who, in addition to occupying a. high position socially and politically,/ possesses the further claim to consideration at the haud of an opponent that ' he is thoroughly in earnest, he has not , hesitated to compare him to a .harmless old lunatic. Sir George, on the other hand, has . iri a more dignified manner than has ; characterised any of his opponent's actions or writings, gone the length of treating the . Premier of the eolony f with, such contempt as to return to him his latest communication . ua-bpened. And so matters stand at present. The ex -Govern or has been weak beyond all that could have been expected from him in his arguments ; the head of the Government has forgotten himself and what was due to his own position and to that of him with whom he is at variance, and the whole colony has been scandalised by a correspondence that should never have passed between two of its leading men.' If the tone of these letters and telegrams is to be imported into the Parliamentary debates, the next session will be remarkably lively, to say tbe least of it, for if the leaders of the Houae enter upon personalities and strive each to excel the otber in smartness of repartee, we may depend upon it that their lead will be followed by numerous lesser lights who will not be able to draw a distinction between smartness and coarseness. Ifc is satisfactory to find that we are under the rule of a Provincial Government possessing sufficient discrimination to decide without hesitation what is and whafc is nofc a fit and proper ground upon which to proclaim a public holiday. Within the last two months three events of considerable importance have occurred. The. first was the openiug of railway communication in the province. The extent of tho first instalment of our line is not, so great as we it is true, could have desired, but still ifc is the beginning of the new state of things which we hope is in store for us. The second was the successful completion

of laying the cable which brings us. : within a few 'minutes of Australia and?; a few hours of London. T/be third was| the cricket match, played on Tuesday | between *. two^eleyens : clad in garbsj/ which we are not accustomed to see ofJF the stage. On the first of these occasions it was not thought at all desirable to commemorate the event by a cessation from business. Perhaps by seeing the line constructed by and the £ employed in" carrying ballast we had beeome so accustomed to the sight of the-steam horse at, work on,. the_ iron,,, road that tbe novelty had worn off, and therefore the openingiof the first, line in] the province for traffic was deemed unworthy of notice. Then came the landing - of the cable. Why should we put ourselves out about so paltry, a matter? Are not cables being laid in all parts of the world until, the ' extension Aof the/ means of telegraphic commumbatiohtois* become quite an every day occurrence riot ini any? way calling for special commemoration? So it would be folly to mark such an event in so. -exceptional^ a manner as by a Royal-Arms-^ headed . proclamation of ~ f a,. Ti pubJie holiday." But then 'comes quite another thing. A cricket match played by non-cricketers in stage habiliments is a matter of real public 5 irnjpdr t*"' ance. - Compared with that, into what insignificance does the landing of a bit of wire at Cable Bay by a -lot of common - sailors in working dre-ss sink;/ j; Just think now, you who are fathers and mothers of families, and tell me which you would rather that your children, had an opportunity of witnessing-4-the ; ! cable ships with all their powerful and delicate machinery" required for Buch <a • work as , they had undertaken;' ''..aiid carried to a successful terrain atfc>n, 'or a lot of people .dotted .about.- the, Botanical Gardens in- broad, daylight in strange costumes, which most'df them 7 looked as though they would. bb' exceed-'' ingly glad to rid of. Of course you would prefer the latter, so throw up your hats -and shout hurrah-s for,«.the Super, the Provincial Secretary, and cricket burlesqued* _ _ - Those who came down frQtn the Waimea by train on Priday night seem to have been highly diverted by their little trip. Some of them .were not accustomed to travelling by .; rail, and their ideas of what it meant had been formed upon what they had read "of ifcs comfort and of the wonderful facility with which an engine cari drag a heavy load along the rails.. But,.as it so . often happens, : what you read about arid what you experience are so, very .different. On this occasion the' train, in addition, to the ordinary passenger carriages' 'arid guard's van, consisted of some ibur ,or five trucks of firewood, which doea ; not; strike one. as being a very heavy- 'load,: Still,- when Jenkins' Hill was reached, the agonies that that engine endured are said to have been something fearful to witness. It puffed, and it. groaned, aud ib wheezed, and ib tugged, and it strained, and in fact it did almost everything that even a human ', being could have done, except hurl -impreca-. tiona at the head of the engineer who had condemned it to climb that hill. . Bub all was of no avail, and at la^fc nothing was left but to adopt: the*, humiliating expedient of leaving < some of the carriages behind. I happened to see that engine starting back after its arrival in town to fetch that portion of , its tail which it had been compelled to i to leave behind, and although I was ignorant at the time of the cause of the additional trip, I could not' bub .notice^ how angrily it screamed and how passionately it vomited; forth steam and smoke as it left the station on an errand that should have been unnecessary. Or it may be that'l mistook ifcs taeaning, and l that all the screeching and .:. rushing sounds I heard were intended as poeans in praise of the engineering skill which had laid out that railway iu such a manner as to render it as nearly useless as possible for heavy goods trallic, 1 see tbat somebody has purchased the, remains of the Empire; Hotel :in j Wellington j and is going to bbmmen'ce '; business there at once. Now, Ido hope that the new proprietor will not riiriie., the new hotel after himself, but that be ; -will give ifc some other distinctive appellation. What makes ine' say this is that I read in a Wellington paper to-day :— " We understand that Mr Light sshiendl, of the Prince of Wales Hotel, has leased the remains ; of ther Empire Hotel from Mr Jacob Joseph'-? for a term.' • He intends to ; put the house in -thorough repair, and' to;reopen as speedily as possible."' -Now suppose some stranger in AVellirigbon ' who was putting up at' this hotel were, to go out, sayj to au oyster pupper ; w;ith • a few friends, and suppose the oysters; were to produce. a little inarticulateness': of speech as they will occasionally, (do ,' late at night if you take enough of* them,,, and supposethat stranger had to stop a i policeman to ask him the way tb : Lightschiendi's. hotel, . are not the v chances at least ten to one that the • policeman would consider him a candidate for the lock up, and and take 'him-' there accordingly? Ifc would certainly not be fair o;i Mr. Lightchiendl's part to subject his lodgers to yuch inconvenience, and therefore I counsel him riot to attempt toimmorfca-' lise himself by calling his newly-. ap-.^ quired property after his .own --name; ; Jusfc try and pronounce it even before eating oysters, and see what you" /can • make of it, and, from that, judge-what'-it would sound like after supper. ■ ..' M ;•

$\ Ijfch JB&\ clutha correspondent of the yßmce Herald' gives the following |inlormation :— ;Wliile speaking of crops, jj[ a|ffi reminded; of the very low price of ?oat^iiiß ieaaon.* At r one.tim.e j heard of bats being placed' at Is per bushel,' but since I have heard of them being offered at lOd, aud ultimately 9J per bußhel. This is enough to drive many gf our hard-working agriculturalists to |eek/a : renovating by means of " whitewashing," or something analagous.