THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 36, 10 February 1877, Page 2

THE WEEK.

I This has not been a week to make merry over. In town we have; not yet experienced the evil effects of ,the severe weather that was so rife a few days ago; that, however, is in store for us, as it is impossible for the country to suffer to the extent reported without ihe trade centre of the district being affected likewise. But he must indeed be a selfish individual who can regard the losses incurred by so many of our farmers with equanimity for the sole reason that he himself has escaped with impunity. I can well imagine how melancholy a day to-morrow will prove to scores of country settlers, who will then for the first time have leisure to look round upon their ruined homesteads and to calculate the losses they have suffered. Last Sunday,-it may be, they strolled round their properties, regarded with honest pride their orchards and gardens, their two or three cows, their little flock of sheep, their fields of barley, to which they were doubtless looking to supply them with the cash required for the purchase of the necessaries and comforts of life, and perhaps of those few luxuries upon which they had set their hearts, in the event of the harvest turning out as well as they anticipated. Now what do they see? Empty stockyards, broken fences, paddocks covered with mud and slime and devoid of the sheep they had so carefully reared, the orchard where the trees were laden with fruit a wilderness far more; barren in appearance than when they undertook to reclaim it from its original wild state, -aUd, in some instances, what is even much worse, their very houses gone, and themselves, their wives, and children homeless. There are ; cases, too, where not only has the fruit of years of bard labor and untiring industry been swept away— grain sprouted, cattle and sheep drowned, stacks of corn destroyed but the very ground itself upon which the settler was dependent for his livelihood has disappeared as well, and he has to begin life again. Sad indeed are the "thoughts to which ag review of this terrible week of ruin and devastation must give rise in the minds of = all who are not totally incapable of sympathising with their neighbors in their trials and sufferings. I must say that I am. curious to learn something of the experiences of those who on pleasure bent left upon that excursion trip in the Wanaka. They certainly did not start under the brightest of auspices, but' the scarlet fever scare which they underwent here, and the sulphurous atmosphere in which they must have lived for some time after leaving Nelson in consequence of the fumigation of the vessel, would prove but trifling inconveniences compared with those with which they must since have had. to put up if the weather has been with them anything like what we have experienced. Milf ord Haven and the other Sounds on the West Coast which they were to visit must possess peculiar charms indeed if with the surrounding , hills clothed in mist and viewed from the deck of a steamer on which the rain is pouring in torrents they furnish themes for glowing descriptions of their majestic beauty. And yet from the pens of the little army of press representatives who were despatched on the expedition I expect to 3ee some very gushing accounts of the delights of the trip, and the magnificence of the scenery. I shall look for these with no small degree of curiosity. The Mayor of Wellington seems to have some novel and very remarkable ideas as to the uses of water. It appears that either the water supply is insufficient for the town or that a larger revenue is required to pay for the works, so the Mayor has framed a set of bye laws to meet the exigencies of the occasion, and in these has defined what is to be deemed an "ordinary " and what an " extraordinary" supply of water, for the latter of which a higher rate is to be paid. From these bye-laws I find, not, I must confess, without considerable surprise, that for the purposes of the bath, the supply is to be regarded aa an " extraordinary " one. For his own sake I do hope that the Mayor of Wellington does not carry into practice in private life the curious notions he has proDounded on this subject in his public capacity. If the people of the borough of Wellington hold the: same opinions as their Municipal chief on this matter^ those in other parts of the colony will cease to wonder at the unhealthy condition of residents in the Empire City. / ' A certain newspaper in the North Island has a country correspondent who in the gushing business can scarcely have his equal— at all events I have never had the good fortune to meet him. It fell the other day to his lot to describe a little village concert got up. for some charitable purpose or other, and this was how he commenced:— "lf on the night of the I3th there was no moon, the stars, its children, which glimmered overhead, made full compensation to a number of riders who, wending their way homewards, described the merits of the concert." This is a pretty j enough opening, but now we come to something even more delightful. It appears that at this concert, the merits of which were A described by the star-struck' riders, there was one thing wanting, one serious defect which weighed heavily on the correspondent's mind. This was " the dearth of lady singers." But this " dearth," however, is skilfully turned to account by the writer, who sees in it an opportunity of which he readily avails himself of paying a delicate compliment to the ladies who were present, and who appear to have been two in number! " Indeed," he says, '« had it not been for Dr T.'s (he gives the name in full) fc WO dear, graceful, and charming girls that sex which was so pleasingly and attractively represented by Mrs N. at the last concert would have been painfully wanting. As was to be expected Miss T. and Miss Maggie shone as the two stars of the evening." I should have dearly liked to see "Dr T.'s two dear graceful, and charming girls" when they first took up the newspaper in which they were thns publicly alluded to, and if their spirit is equal to their graceful charms, I should also like to be an eye-witness of their first interview with the correspondent who had taken so unwarrantable a liberty with their names. j> #