THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 268, 9 December 1876, Page 2

THE WEEK.

I am not at all sura that the safety of property in Nelson has been enhanced by the finding of the jury on Wednesday last in the breaking-into-a shop caae. It has now been decided upon no mean authority that it ia perfectly legal and allowable for a gang of boys to provid* themselves with skeleton keys, with which they may in the dead of night enter places of business, and, for anything we know to the contrary, dwelling houses, with impunity. The idea is not a pleasant one, but still it must of necessity occur to the minds of Nelson tradesmen, that on going to their shops in the morning they are not to feel surprised or annoyed if they find that in their absence a nightly viaifc has in their absence been paid to their pre prises. In connection with this affair thera ia a point to which I refer with some diffidence and delicacy, but still, forced as it has been on the public attention, it seems to call for comment. Sympathy with the parents of the trio who appeared before the Judge on Wednesday in the painful position in which they were placed prevailed in the minds of eyery one of the crowd collected in the Court, and, I belieTe, of the whole of the residents in town, and I myself shared it to the full, but is it not just possible that this sentiment may be carried a little too far? Supposing, for instance, that on going home in the evening, and retiring to my kedroom for the night, I were to observe a foot protruding from beneath my bed. 1 giv# the alarm, and the individual, be he man or boy, is captured, and in his possession ia found a skeleton key, by meant of which he has effected an entrance into my house in my absence. Has it come to this that I must enquirs into hia pedigree before handing him over to be dealt with by the (supposed) strong arm o£ the law, or that, one* in custody, this consideration ia te influence the result of his trial? I cannot agree with the Judge in saying that for the sake of the prisoners I was glad whea that verdict of Not Guilty was returned, but I certainly was so on account of their parents, still, in common with hundreds of others having equally kindly feelings towards the latter, I could not but feel that the precedent then established was an exceedingly dangerous one. I was present during the greater part of the trial, and iv its course I experienced two of the greatest surprises I had ever known. The milder of the two wa3 on hearing a learned counsel endeavoring to impress upon an intelligent jury that the motiva which induced a surreptitious entrance into the shop by these boys was a desire to make themselves acquainted with the geography of the seat of war in the East. He positively did nofc even smile when attempting to imprest upon the minds of the twelve bearers whose judgment he was attempting to influence that his clients stole into a dark room, where, until the verdict was recorded it was supposed that they had no right to be, on a moonless night for the purpose* of examining maps showing the prominent features of the " wild hills of Bulgaria." This, I say, was an immense surprise to me, but there was a still greater to follow— the jury believed him ! Takaka appears to be a good sort of place to reside in for those who wish to make a fortune. After a few years of patient toil

and industry a settler in that wealth-produc-ing district may find himself in possession of auch a pile that hia main difficulty is to know how to dispose of his money. This, at least, is the deduction that may fairly he drawn from yesterday's Court experience, as two of the leading residents in that locality were then to be found spending their substance in obtaining a decision in the most expensive manner conceivable upon what the Judge was pleased to term " the most trumpery case that he had ever known brought into a court of law during the whole course of his experience at the bar." Now my good fellows, I don't want to rile ye, but don't you think that, even supposing you had a serious disagreement over a not very valuable piece of mudflat, it would have been far better to call in some independent man on whom you could both rely to settle your little differences, and to have devoted the money you hava wasted on consultations, Court fees, counsels' fees, and jury's fees to the purchase of some good cows, sheep, or 1 pigs. Having a friendly feeling towards both of you I could not but feel vexed to find a couple of hard-working men like yourselvea caating your hardly earned bread upon waters that will never, never, return it again to cither of you. I was last week called upon to address a few pungent remarks to one who had insisted upon placing himself in the relation to me of grandson. Since then I have, as some of you may be aware, received a reply from him of which I had not intended to take any notice, but as some of his brothers and cousins insist upon it that I ought not to pa3s it by without remark I must once more pen a few lines TO MY GRANDSON. My dear Boy,— it was with mingled feelings of shame and sorrow that I perused those remarks which, in a fit of insanity that, I trust, was only temporary, you penned last Tuesday. Little did I think that a grandson of mine would so degrade himself, but, alas, I have discovered my mistake. When first you commenced to write for the paper which you so disgraced the other day, I heard it said that you were going to teach the people of Nelson what journalism might be made in proper hands. You certainly have introduced quite a new style of newspaper writing, and hare been very successful in. showing us how low axe the depths to which an enraged journalist can descend. And then, that inconsistency, which, as I told you last Saturday, was so prominent a feature in your character, has again displayed itself in so marked a manner as to fully justify what I then said on that subject. You will remember that a few days ago you were good enough to allude to me as your grandmother, which, I take it, wa3 meant as a term of endearment, and yet on Tuesday, a very short time afterwards, you spoke of me as a « dusky hag," which seems to me to be the reverse of affectionate, thus showing how your opinions sway backwards and forwards, and are not to be relied upon for many hours together. Then again, in that kindly, courteous manner, for which you are so noted, you comment upon my "countenance and complexion," and immediately after indulging in these good humored pleasantries you talk in a tone of virtuous indignation, which becomes you well, of " personal assaults." Can it be that your nature is such that for you to be consistent is an impossibility? If so, you are to be pitied rather than blamed, and your fellow men should change the tone thej invariably adopt now when speaking of you. There is one more feature in your " Truth's Trouble " article of which I do not approve. It is framed too much after the style of your brother scriba who furnishes weekly contributions to your morning contemporary. He is in the habit of interspersing his prose with poetry, occasionally to an inordinate extent, and in this you have closely imitated him, Your coarseness and vulgarity are entirely your own, but hi the way you have put together what you had to say, your admiration of that writer is shown in too palpable a manner by your copying him so closely. And now, in conclusioa, let me offer you a word of advice. Never again attempt a personal attack on a fellow-journalist. You made one upon "F " for a few harmless remarks he chanced to let drop upon a letter from a Riwaka settler, and which were in no way calculated to raise your ire. You must feel that you have come to signal grief in the encounter, so don't try it again. Never write for the public when, stung by well-merited satire, you have lost all control over your temper, lest you should maka as sorry an exhibition of yourself as you did on Tuesday. Remember that the Nelson public are unaccustomed to, and are slow to forgive, so gross an outrage upon common decency as that of which you ware then guilty. Recognised by you, as I am, as yoar grandmother, I feel that I should not be doing my duty did I not prescribe a punishment for the very grave offence you have committed, and, although I have every desire to treat you with leniency, I feel compelled to be severe, so I order that twiea a day for th« next three months you carefully read that scandalous production of your pen entitled " Truth's Trouble." At the end of that period, you will, I feel convinced, have become, after such a course of reading, a thoroughly repentant man, full of bitter regrets for having so far forgotten what was due to yourself and to the public as to compose a«d send forth, even to the vary little world of Colonist readers, so gross an article. Trusting that indications of reform may speedily exhibit themselves in you. I am as before ' j\