The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1877.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 85, 12 April 1877, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1877.

Elsewhere will be found a letter from one of the Karamea settlers, not a "special " or an immigrant, but a man well known in Nelson who has made his home at Karamea, and with true' colonial independence is not afraid to speak out his. mind." His testimony is riot to be impugned or set aside by a Sneering insinuation that he ia idle and worthless, and his endorsement of the 'statements made by those who returned from the settlement a mouth ago as. to .its general .mattagfement addsjnmch to : . their weight.; It. .will be -seetf that in. his opinion the failure. of the settlement is largely, if not entirely, owing to the management, and he lays the responsibility on, Mr, o!Conor's shoulders, stating that had there been a better chief the settlement would have been in a prosperous condition, instead.of being gradually.. deserted .by : men, who, he says, are as good workers as are to be found anywhere. Mr O'Conor returned f to .Nelson by the Wallace last night, and probably will think it incumbent upon him to reply to Mr Matthews' letter, aud to the other statements that have been made regarding the Karamea settlement. The Colonist this morning has something more to say about the lunatic on board the Northampton, and very unfairly accuses us of "attempting to burke its exposure of wrong doing." Of this we had uo intention or desire, on the contrary we say that our contemporary was perfectly right, if he were satisfied as to the correctness of his facts, to give publication to them. If, however, they turn out to be incorrect, he must not be surprised at being told so. The assertion made to-day that* some one was to blame for allowing the unfortunate man to take his passage on board au emigrant ship we fully endorse, but the statement that he was cruelly treated is entirely without foundation. He was not placed in a horse-box, but ou its being found necessary to confine him in a room by himself a deck-house that had been originally used for. washing purposes was comfortably fitted up for his reception, the walls being papered witb pictures to give it as cheerful an ap lpearauce as possible under the circumstances. His brother, a gentleman residing in Wellington, while regretting that he should have [ come out as an immigrant, expressed himself j as being perfectly satisfied with the treatment he had received on the voyage, and showed his confidence in the doctor under whose care he had been by offering him a handsome fee to take charge of the. patient on a tour to the hot springs: This does not look as though those immediately interested considered thit unnecessarily harsh treatment had been used. .:. . ■ : Captain- Cross, who on his recent trip to Auckland visited the Kohimarama Training School, announces that he will be glad to give evory information in his power to parents who may be desirous of sending -their sons there. „.__.. t The following Nelson cadets,: being among the thirty highest scorers, are entitled to again compete for the Cbafcnpion Belt and other prizes .-M'lvor (57), Jessop (54), Harley (52), Pickett (50). The highest scorer was Mowbray of Waiuku, w ho made 72. The traffic returns of the Nelson and Foxhill railway for the fonr weeks ending March 10 were as follows:'— Passengers (4170), £376 9slod. parcels,- £2l lis 4d; season tickets," £4 17s 6d ; — total, £402 18s 8d; Goods, including 420 tons freight, 47,034 feet, of timber, 65 bales of wool, three sheep, two calves and a horse, _S 168 7s id. Grand total, £571 5s 9d. We notice that Mr Mabin will sell by auction to-morrow the right to collect tolls at the Suburban South Toll-gate. Messrs. Sharp and Pickering notify that they will sell by auction to-morrow at eleven o'clock, at their Rooms, Trafalgar-street, a quantity of valuable jewellery. . A Quadruple Assembly will be held at Mr C. lung's Assembly Room this evening. Dancing will commence at 8' 15. Mr. 1-1. Balme has just completed to the order of Mr Job Lines a mail coach which is j to run between Westport and Reef tou. Judgj ing from its appearance we should imagine | that the roads in that part must be of the roughest description, but no matter how bad they may be this particular vehicle looks as though it would be quite equal to the occasion. The tires are no iess than au inch in thickness, the axles are two inches in diameter, and the whole of the gear is strong in proportion. The rockers are made of spring steel on quite a new principle, one of the advantages bf which is greater ease and comfort to the passengers, while it allows of the body of the coach being two inches lower on the gear than if wooden rockers were used. The cushions are oovered with the best enamel leather, and the painting and ornamenting are all of the very best. So long as Mr Balme continues to turn out such conveyances from his establishment he should have no lack of orders. If Nelson is to become the depot of the West Coast coal trade, for which her geographical position eminently fits her, our merchants and men of business generally will liave to be on the alert or they will be forestalled by the WeUington men, as will be seen by the following paragraph from a recent i_sue of the P sl:—« We understand that Mr Martin Kennedy, M.11.1. , who recently purchased the p.s. Luna for the West Coast coal traders now endeavoring to make arrange-

ments with the authorities for landing and _toring,the West Coast coil either on the new reclamation or on a temporary jetty run out from the breastwork. He is quite willing to pay the same wharfage as he would if he berthed* his vessels' at the Queen's Wharf, while the latter would be spared considerable knocking about and his vessels considerable delay by the proposed arrangement. He estimates that if a staging about 200 ft square could be run out from the breast-work, he could supply West Coast coals in Wellington at a far cheaper rate thau Newcastle coals possibly could be landed for, while it would pay his vessels to take back cargoes of goods from Wellington to Greymouth at so cheap a rate that it would pay the West Coast towns just as well to import from Wellington as from Melbourne."