THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 279, 24 November 1877, Page 2

THE WEEK.

I should liko to say something about politics this week, but as this would necessitate my commenting upon oar politicians I prefer to let the subject alone, as with reference to the latter I fear that any remarks I might make would not be complimentary, and therefore it is better to leave them unsaid. Squabbling and qnarrelling, quarrelling and squabbling— these seem to be the order of the day, although they do not appear on the Order Paper. Then we have the statemeats with regard to the finance of the colony. The Treasurer professes to place before us the condition of the country in this respect plainly and without exaggeration, whereupon the late Treasurer rises and tells the House that all they have been trusting to is deceptive, illusory, and absolutely unreliable. Both of them profess to be authorities upon the subject on which they treat, so what are outsiders like you, dear reader, and me to believe? Out of all the wranglings and accusations, statements and counter statements, the conclusion at which I have arrived is that the present Government are not going to be displaced from the position they now occupy this session, and consequently that there will be no dissolution, nhich will very much disappoint some who are anxious to get into Parliament, and prove very gratifying to others who are now there and don't want to get turned out, which they certainly would be if they had to pass through the ordeal of another election. It was not a very imposing spectacle at the Council Chamber on Wednesday when the result of the election of a Mayor of tbe City of Nelson was made known. The number of electors present was limited, and the speech-making was not wearisome in its length, nor dazzling in its brilliancy. And yet the occasion was an important, I may say, a very important one, much more so, indeed, than some people imagine. Of course we all admit that the appointment at any time of a gentleman to such a post is a matter that must more or less affect U3 all, directly or indirectly, but on this particular occasion it is likely to lead to something more I did not allude to what I am now about to say last Saturday because I was fearful of bringing to the surface too large a crop of ambitious candidates, but I don't mind now calling attention to the fact that in all probability H.R.PI. the Priuce of Wales will make a tour of the Australian colonies before twelve mouths have elapsed, and as a matter of course he will confer the honor of Knighthood on the Mayors of all the cities he visits. Sir J*s*ph D*ds*n, 1 congratulate you most heartily upon your promotion in prospective while I sympathise with all those who have thrown away so splendid a chance of securing a handle to their names. You may be sure that I was at the Provincial Hall on the night of the Horticultural Show, as I should have felt that I had not done my duty to society had I deprived myself of the pleasure of being one of the crushed among the perspiring throng. Just as I was concluding a critical examination of the exhibits on the centre table I came to a glass butter dish, in which were some curious looking pink bulbs about the size of a pea lying at the bottom of the water with which it was filled. Not knowing what they were, I enquired of an elderly gentleman who wa3 standiug by my side if he could inform me to what department in horticulture they belonged. Afterwards I remembered that there was a twinkle in hi 9 eye as he replied: "To be sure lean; that is a very curious botanical specimen recently imported by the Secretary of the Acclimatisation Society from California, and is known as the Sammonovia Americana." I thanked him for his courtesy, and after further examination was about to leave the spot when I observed that a little knot of people had gathered round the glass dish, which, with its contents, they were inspecting with considerable interest. Having just left a party of three or four men who on the strength of a slight acquaintance formed in their boyhood with the four first rules of arithmetic had been discussing with some spirit the merits of Mr Larnach's Financial Statement, it occurred to me that if they could turn to advantage their limited knowledge of the rudiments of that science, I too might make a parade of my recently acquired information, and so I thus addressed my audience :— "These curious bulbous plants, ladies and gentlemen, known to the learned as the "Sammonovia Americana" are natives of the United States, where they grow in great profusion on the vast prairies, and are a favorite article of food with the inhabitants of the districts where they are found. You will observe fcb.pt one of the peculiarities of this strange plant is that the stem spriugs from the bulb in a horizontal direction, therein differing from the hyacinth, the onion, and the tulip, which send out vertical shoots. Another feature worthy of observation is that at oue end of the stem are two protuberances that have something of the appearance of eyes. It is from these that tho blossom spriugs when the plant arrives at maturity. Let me call your attention more closely to this remarkable fact." Thereupon I raised the glass, when to my astonishment and horror the " bulbous plauts " began to scuttle round and round the crystal vessel at a tremendous pace, while from three or four yards behiud me I heard a chuckle and the word "Sold" in the same tone of voice in which the information on which I had based my little lecture had been imparted to me. " You didn't d.o so badly," exclaimed the same voice, '■'■ but you qught to have let the glass alone, and then t\\e young salmon would have kepi quiet." This was bad enough, but then came another voice : " Now the lecture's over, let's have a riddle. Can you tell me why those fish are like a churchwarden?" I heritatiugly replied that if there were auy points of similarity between the two I failed to notice.them, when he replied, "Because they go round with the bag." "Yes," added another of those to whom I had recently been addressing myself, "and, as with the churchwarden, the weight of them doesn't seem to trouble them much." finding the room was getting excessively warm, I hastily observed that I would postpone auy further remarks upon the subject until the Society's Autumn Show, and then I left, thiuking that though one might talk about finance without kuowing much of the subject, a little more caution should be exercised in speaking of fish.