THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 165, 14 July 1877, Page 2

THE WEEK.

Five days hence the Governor will have spoken. That is; his Excellency will have told us just as much about the past, aad cast ' upon the future just as bright a light as hia advisers think prudent. He will, of course, after lightly coquetting with various matters of policy, assure us that the Estimates have boen framed with due regard to economy and efficiency, and then he will express the hope that the efforts of the Ministers and the I arhament may be blessed by Providence to the good of the country. And I certainly hope they will, for it seems to me that it is . to providence alone that we have to trust to estimate us from the financial mess in which we have become involved. I wish it to be ' clearly understood that it is to the Pr<m-

deaca which is speK with a big P that I refer, for I don't thinkjwe can claim to have' taken re^y muchjinto otir consideration tnafc; whose initial letter w-ttte small one. j I am deeply regrefcM.thafc the language ai my ;cqmmaud^i3 inade^aate to convey to my resdejs.a^orre«| jeatimafce of the intensity\rf"\ the excitement throaglfVhtch I have passed? dunng the past week, the cause of it being a boat race that took place at Auckland last baturday. The contest lay between two liitle craft named respectively The Pet and The Brothers, of neither of which had I been fortunate enough to hear before, but the' mere fact of the result, 1 or results I may say t' being made the subject of three separate telegrams (for all and each of which the newspapers receiving- them had to pay wire charges) was in itself sufficient to raise me to a^pitch of enthusiasm I have seldom reached betore. And the agony was so prolonged' inrst we were told that the two had raced, and that one (I forget which, and, after all. it does not much matter) had come in first, but that a protest had been entered by the'-i second to pass the pos&.< That wasiTelegramY One. Then was ithef information] flash6d-from Auckland to-Napieri-TaranakJ Wellington, Wanganui, Nelson', Blenheim, Chnstchurcfa, Dunedin, Bluff, Westpost, tjrreynaonth, Hokitika, and every other intermediate station where a newspaper ;is: published that it had been decided that thfe race mast be, re-sailed or re-rowed (I anx sorry to have to admit thari'really don^ inowr whether they were sailing or rowing boats that were engaged in the all-abscrbiug Qout«!B.fr> For four and twenty hours w^e-..were--kept in j suspense, and then the Pre^r Agency, ever pready to supply us ftitb/dteias, lOf news of shch interest as to fully? fuaeiW 1 -newspaper prdprietors in incurring (;elegr3ph-cha-^es in oljtaining them, wired tifafi 4;he c •^other or the ohe (again I forget whicti). hid ultimately pnjved the winner. Some peMle' say t&at; there was no occasion lit albfo tele*, graph anythirig connected with the race 'BuY I-jjpeedily shut.np^pne ortwosach unreasonable folk who argued tftaa by "aaKng them :—Supposing you were an Aacklander .and on. taking np J^''pftpßrlstfiara^sli telegraphic report of an exeiting^ace Bei\V6en •two!little scrubbers of tfoatsi in iNelLn hlffboT:, wouldn't yon fe6l thatThad no n^n" tjon of the event been, made, you would We Jjeemibadly and" uttfawiy StteAfflCßy^kes journalists who undertake to supply you with the latest news dn~all matters of importance? T,h6y.had riot a. wprdftFsay in^ In one way or another I have a good deal to do with these press telegrams, but as I, -fortunately, am on the whole & gocKteemnfiEßifc sort of fellow, they only occasion slight outbursts of wrath, and those at distant intervals but I confess that I did feel aggrieved; aud that, it wouldn't dp to pufc in print all I uttered, when on opening the envelope o| oijeof them a day or two agoi'Tfound"that" all the telegraph 4orm was the' Tia--' formation that the N. Z. Times had received -itji report pi ]^r Stafford's speech by means of a wire specially laid ou to its editor's roomrThe-flrstthing tlfat s£fuck"nje after' my anger at receiving such expensive rubbish had abated was ghat the Tim-*, whose oifa&J if; l remember rightly, is: only 'i hundred-or f two of yar^si from the WelUngtQjfc£ aWartii,: Office., had very stupidly gone to a good deal of unnecessary expense, seeing that the whole message mightiiave been taken down perhaps a, great, deal better than was done by their specially engagedVcterk, >vithin a very short distance of their doors, arid forwarded to then* slip by slip without ttte smallest' delay. But that was their business and does not concertf me or anyone -else;' The neit idea that occurred to me was to aug gesMo the agent of the Press Agency in Nelson that he should watch how messages are .delivered at the offices in this townrand telegraph the results of his observations tg his principals something in this,styled"The Colonist's' tele-' grams were forwarded from the 1 office by a boy in a grey packet, 60-whom, allowed the special privilege of a ride in the Dun Mountain Bus;" "Two messengers were, specially retained to.convey the telegram % th,e limes office, one riding the' other pick-a--baick;" "A bicycle had been engaged to enable the boy to deliver his message at the Evening Mail office with special speed but P^ingtd'his want of practice, he" found % quicker to go on foot." I belief tn%e l little items would be read elsewhere with qu;ite as much interest as, and give rise to no more powerful language* from the, edit'oftr wlo received them than; thattelegram about ,th^ way the Mm Zealand Times got 1 iti: This last week has been a' mole ibiian 1 ustiaMy trying one toiriewspaper men in FeW soti, who have been driven to fette verge of madness by the scarcity of themes upon which to base "locals," bhtnbtwithstandinjr the straits in which thej? kave^oan* ■ fehemseives, not one of them has had the ingenuity to concoct such a paragraph as the following which lately appeared in the Aucfclaad-SW-------"It will be seen by reference to our column demoted to, recording recent Additions i t6^the': population;; that, cthe ;amateur.. 1 circles may be congratulated upon an acquisition to their number. The delighted parent of the, interesting stranger "is awell-knowa amateur performer, and a strict'adherent tfl principles of; total abstinence. congratulate our G(wd(;a?emplar<ffriebas'^btf thi? most recent addition, to their ranks*?' Supposing; it became the custom to^.devote a separate paragraph to ! every'^inWestm£ little stranger "'tha^arrivediup'onth^ scene and to make special, reference to the habits' and tastes of the parents, whata (wide (field would be opened up ,to the journalist in Nelson I .<>•,. ,*-<. 1 I read in a home paper the 1 dther c(ay i-L "The French Society for suppressing the abuse ofi tobaccd M 3 prepared a petition U be prejieoted to Parliament^ asking them to prohibit youths under sixteen from usi Qg the weed in public places." If such a Society with such an object in view were to^ stadia Nelson^they would, if they performed : the duties, they had . undertaken' thoroughly^ wot'k themselves to death in a< fortnight. If they.. confined; themselves to: endeavoring to check the habit of smokim? in Children under ten, they might possibly last a month, but not much longer, fbr the' work would even then be too great' for human eqdurance.; I speak from my awn personal observation. „ "You,should never ask for, anything/?' I his was the reproof that was occasionallyadmimsterd to me when as a youngster I expressed a wish for something that took my fancy of excited my appetite. The theory ..may be alJt.Tgay, well, in hoyhood, bat when! you are approaching the sere and,yellow I am not sure that it holds good. For instance, Jl . r a u Do > dcll^ately tinted the other day' that I should be glad of an opportunity of think the probability is that I-should not, have found on toy table this morning two" brace of fine plump little quail, for wlrf' I\u \ 5 wnom they were scut, desires to' thank his country friend, E l,