THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 249, 20 October 1877, Page 2

THE WEEK.

Some of the readers of the Mail hare perhaps been good enough to notice the absence of ray usual Saturday letter for th« last four weeks, so that on reappearing before them I may be allowed to explain* that " all work and no play" is as detrimental to the man as to the proverbial boy « Jack," that even the j >urnalist occasionally craves for an occasional rest from his labors, and that impelled by this desire to be out of harness for a short time "F." determined upon takiug a brief holiday. No further explanation have I to offer for playing truant, so that I trust that this may be deemed sufficient by those who hare done me the honor to mis* my periodical communications. And during the last fire weeks what a change has come over the aspect of affairs in the little world of politics in this colony of New Zealand. That the Atkinson Government is gone is perhaps not so much to be wondered at, for they hare for a, long time been displaying «uch signs of weakness that none who had b«en watching tha course of events could doubt that their end was approaching, and must shortly come. But that bir George Grey should actually be installed as Premier, that indeed is something to be surprised at. And then we cannot forget that the late crisis is peculiarly interesting to Nelson, from the fact of its' having been brought about by three of the representatives of this district. Supposing Messrs Curtis, Sharp, and Baigent had not changed their opinions we should still be jogging along in the same old groove that had" been carved out by the " continuous Ministry " of seven years' standing, but these three have completely altered the aspect of affairs, and yet I will undertake to say that aot one of them is satisfied with the result that, combined, they have produced. Of course I cannot look into the future sufficiently clearly to say whether or not the present Ministry are going to retain office during the remainder of the session, buc if they do, I predict that our City members will have been as completely sold as was ever any;man either in politics, love, or war. Curtis, the niaster-politiciap, and Sharp, the apprentice, will both have to admit that "Johnny Sheehan" has been one too many for them, that he has outwitted, out-general led, and thoroughly duped them. They deemed it desirable that the Atkinson Ministry should be swept away, so did he. Their support in tha attack was given ou condition that in the new Government Sir George Gray was to find no place. The condition was acceded to until the vacancy was created, but thenwell, then, " Johnny came marching" home in triumph, bearing Sir George on his ahoul lers, and hoisting him from them into the Premier's chair. And Massra Curtis and Sharp were left lamenting and wondering how it was that the exact opposito of what they had anticipated had occurred. Even Mr Curtis, generally extremely difficult to overreach, will have to admit that in Mr Sheehan he baa met with more than hia match. One of those happy thoughts that occasionally occur to ft man just when it ia too late to turn them to account came into my mind the other day when I learned that Mr Fisher, the member for Heathcote, of whom nobody ever heard until last Weduesday, had b«en promoted to the dignity of & seat on the Treasury Benches. Mr Fisher is a sober-sided, not at all bright, but honest-going old j farmer, who has only very lately appeared ' on the political stags, and what I was thinking was that if I could have met this highly \ respectable old gentleman in Christchurch on some market day three or four months ago, and offered to bet him that before ' October was past he would be a Minister of ] the Crown, I should only have had to venture \ about a pound to ensure mr becoming the fortunate owner of a thousand, for I have * not the smallest doubt but that ha would *

have given those odds without hesitation, and I daresay would have chuckled very heartily to himself at having found anyone green enough to risk a sovereign upon so very improbable a contingency. Oh why wasn't I at Christchurch four months ago, and why didn't I make the bet? Never, never again shall I have such another chance. I had an opportunity the other day of reading a full report of Sir Geo ge Grey's first speech to tha House from the Government benches, and among other matters I noticed the very high terms in which he referred to that "august body" the Parliament of New Zealand. This ig the way in which he spoke of it:—" It will b« for the House to say whether we are fit to be the representatives of what I may venture to call this really august assembly. I deliberately apply that term to it, for honorable gentlemen must know that to many thousands of joung people in New Zealand, who drew their first breath in this colony, and who now occupy positions ranging from boyhood to comparatively mature age, this is the most august assembly they have ever known To thorn it is an assembly which they recognise as possessing powers of the very highest Kind, the power of dealing with the properties, the liberties, nay, with the very lives of ev«ry inhabitant of those islands, an assembly which they cannot but look upon with reverence, clothed, as it is, with powers of so sacred a nature." I can t describe the thrill that ran through me on finding such epithets applied to our Legislature, and I was just congratulating myself upon my rare luck in being one of the inhabitants of a colony which could look up with "reverence " to its Parliament when I happened to take up a northern paper m which the events immediately preceding the division wera thus telegraphed by its Wellington correspondent:—"Both sides were trying to steal men, in order to break the majority either way. Members were made drunk in Bellamy's— people actually waiting to take them away in cabs—so that they should not vote. This is what constitutional government has come to." I wonder whether Sir George wa3 aware of all this when he was talking about the "august assembly," and the " reverence" with which it was looked up to. lam constrained to admit that I believe he was, tor there is very little of what is going on that he does not know. And if he did, was he not uttering a lot of the veriest humbug that ever fell from man's lips? The special jury list at Dunedin must comprise a queer lot. I notice that at tha late tilal of Proudfoot for a grave crime it was found impossible to arrive at a verdict, so that a new trial had to be ordered. The Crown Prosecutor, who, no doubt, ia well acquainted with tha weak points of the Dunedin community, objected to the case being heard before another special jury on the ground that there was no likelihood of thair agreeing "as the panel would be known a week before the trial." Tha only inference to b« drawn from this is that so long as any one in Dunedin who is charged wfth a crime can ascertain a week beforehand tha names of the jurymen who are to try him he is safe to get off if he is only prepared to " make it right" with them. Evidently the Crown Prosecutor has not a very exalted opinion of the honesty, morality, or reliability of a Dunedin special jury. F.