THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 188, 7 September 1878, Page 2

THE WEEK.

I There is always something irritating in the 1 jggconacKmsuess of baviug been sold, of having 1 U placed your confidence in any individual ori gbody who, as events prove, were not to bei ggtrusted. Such is the prevalent feeling just I I pow, and as might be expected it shows itself! Pin the general depression that is to bei ggnoticed in every direction. Eight years ago! ||the proposal was made that the colony should! genter upon a system of public works that! pwas to benefit all parts alike. Railway com fi Hmunication was to be established between! gthe two islands first, and then branch lines!! ||were to be constructed where they werell gfound to be necessary. Nelson entered! gheartily into the scheme. To be brought! ||into direct communication with the otherP of population in this island was thell ||very thing calculated to advance the welfare!! ||of a district possessing such attractions as a! ||place of residence, so she tendered to the! ||(jovernnienfc proposals a warm andathoroughfi It was some time before she wasis fallowed to participate in the scheme butfi gthree years after the public works policy! |gwas agreed to, the railway to Foxhill which!! ||was regarded as the first instalment of thei! trunk line that was to unite her with*! ,gthe South and West was commenced. Somef! was displayed at so small a shared ||of the public works being allowed to us, andfi were made by local efforts to pro-H secure the desired railway, but these werep by the influence of Sir Julius! pvogel, who disapproved of private euter-fi m prise undertaking what he assured us theil ;|Lrovernment intended to perform. So tuej§ ceased, and year after year basil jfcseen the people of Nelson waiting anxiously,! i a iflf?u J . h °P eless] 7, *>r the Governmenti fulfil their promise. Suddenly there isl from Wellington the Ministerial! ttTZ^tZ** "I 6 Go^"^nt have decided! S»riv»!? k through their agreement, to de-fl in the great scheme originally! « propounded, to exclude it from all share in the® |general prosperity, to proclaim toTheSdl

Hhai no one thinking of settling in New Zea-1 sland should thick of going to Nelson or \ |»larlborough, because the Government of the ] had decided to ruin that part of the \ rcolony beyond all hope of redemption. The [ {whole of the money that could be procured J |for public works was to be spent in those ■(more favored portions of the colony which £sent to the House larger numbers of repre- 1 jsenfatives, and consequently whose support j; ?of the Government was better worth pur-^ Is there any wonder that depres- ) Jsion, dissatisfaction, and discontent prevail |to such an extent in Nelson just now? jb % A few lines from Hansard seem to tne to j |be appropriate to the foregoing subject. One J fof the members in the course of a recent spoke as follows: — "I am afraid to to anything scriptural because we; get rebuke! for doing so; but when a : igreat blessing was promised to a nation ■] |which Had become the glory of ail nations,* |there was no better land offered to do itjjthan that which we here possess— a iand of ij s; brooks of waters, of fountains and depths |that spring out of valleys and hills— a land i «of wheat and barley and vines— a land wherel Iwe may eat bread without scarceness— aland ! | jswherc we shall not want anything — a land? s whose stores are iron, and out of whose hills! I we. may dig brass. All we -want is wisdoms |iv our laws," &c. Thereupon Mr SheehanJ |a member of the Ministry which proposes to] Nelson nnct Marlborough, said that? |he thought his honorable friend's quotatioug 3 was exceedingly appropriate, and fairly des-| ?criptive of this country—-' a country which : i |we cannot kill by bad legislation, or bad jj fgoverumeut, or it would have been killedi |long ago." I should like to ask Mr Sheehan: |who so objects to bad government whether in? jfhis opinion it is good government to render^ |a community consisting of between thirty^ |fand forty thousand colonists sullen and dis-^ by the unfair determination ofl Ithose iv power to leave them isolated, neg-H jtlected, aud uncared for, while the money! |that is extracted from their pockets by Itaxatiou is devoted to fostering the interests lof their fellow colonists in other parts of I New Zealeml. It seems to me that by giuiserably bad legislation aud bad Governiment a bold attempt is to be made to kill la large and important portion of the country, gaud j see no reason to hopo that it will prove |a failure I Although there has been a great fus3 and large amount of talking in the House of slate about women's rights, what a shame! git is not to allow them to vote, and what a] |blot it is upon our constitution that they! |are not permitted to hold seats in the As-! |sembly, I am inclined to think that Ihere are! Svery few indeed of the fair sex who take interest in the politics of the colony! |jto read Hans-tnl, so I am thinking of pubJ |lishiug a pamphlet composed entirely of such] from that charming periodical as I ; |tlunk would be perused by my lady readers' |\vith interest arid enjoyment. I will to-day] |select one or two at random in order that I' |may obtain some idea of how such a specula-l |tion would bo likely to answer. To begin' |with Mr Sheeh.-m lie is arguing against! |the admission of lady members to the Mouse, 1 |and gives as one of his reasons that although 1 gsteady old married men, whose hair had^ prown silvery aud grey, might he proof! Sagainst their blandishments it would be] with the younger section of the f representatives. "If," he says, "ten or! pfteen good-looking ladies were elected ta\ gthe House by large constituencies and adopted! ittheplaaof putting pressure upou the'Go-i government or upon private members, politicalsjpurity would disappear." Here is a tribute' |to the fascinations aud influence of the ladies' Ithat should surely make Mr Sheehan a favorite among the fair ones, of |whose prs-seuce in the .'Legislature he enter-! Stains so great a dread. He says nothing 1 gabout "old womeu," thinking, perhaps, that 1 |it is needless- to refer to an element of which' !gthe House has possibly had au opportunity! Sof already forming am opinion from its past; |experience — Mr Fox entertains different! ijviews. lie wants to raise women politically] |tothe equal of men, and ho institutes a! unfavorable to the M.G.A.'s be|tweeu those members of the House who |would exclude them and the monks residing' |in the monasteries on the promontory of; jgMount Athos, who, he tells his hearers, "are! |so bitterly opposed to the female sex, in all I aits forms, that nothing that is female is al-j flowed to tread upon their shores. In this glarge territory, which is some sixty miles tglong by thirty miles broad, with a consider-' iable population such as it is, no female thing! is allowed to be; their cats are all toms, and their hens are all cocks." (Pardon the in-1 terruplion, Mr Pox, but might you not have! added that their cows are all bulls— lrish of course?) " There is nothing feminine whatever allowed in that portion of the country. When Sir George Bowen was travelling there 1 some years ago., and was a guest in one of the 1 he was taken aside by a monk 1 iwho had lived there all his life and was asked gto tell him in confidence what sort of a man |a woman was." Erom this Mr Fox draws gthe conclusion that the monk had a better I appreciation of the dignity of the female I sex than many honorable members of the' illouse, because the latter "do not appear to; Shave discovered that a woman is any sort of la man at all." Mr Fox's speech, as a whole,! ileads me to the belief that "silvery and! I grey " as bis hair may be, he is such an adI mirer of the softer sex that if those " ten or! I fifteen good looking women" if whom Mrj iSheehau is so much afraid were to get intoj I the House he wouid be one of the first to! I yield to such pressure as they might tbink s fit to bring to bear. 3 One of those Keady Reckoners who are |always making absurd and sometimes dis|ngreeable calculations writes to me to say I that he has discovered the true reason why I the Parliament has gone on the spree. He I believes that fiscal considerations are at the |bottom of the whole thing, and that Mr I Ballance was the getter up of the southern 3 trip with a view to increasing the revenue, I which is likely to profit to the extent of the Iduty payable on tho following articles that, I it may be reckoned, will be consumed by the; I peripatetic M.P.'s and their camp fol- | lowers: — I Christchurch Banquet : Twelve dozen Ichampagnfi at 12s, £1 14s; five gallons spirits) I and wine at 12s, £3; 20 gallons beer at three { t halfpence, 2s Cd. — Next morning 200 B. and I S., say 24 gallous brandy at 12s, £1 los. I Ashburton: 400 nips, say 5 gals spirits at 1 12s, £3. I Timaru: Ditto, ditto. I Oamaru: Twelve dozen champagne at 12s, I£7 14s; sundry tots, say 2 gals spirits ai 12s, i£l 4s. s Dunedin: Oceans of champagne, say fifty a dozen iv the three days, at 12s, £30; rivers |of beer, say 500 gals, at three halfpence, |£3 2s Cd; 300 B. and S. each morning, say 3 ; |gallons brandy, at 12s, £1 16s. I j On the return trip the consumption will 1 gprobably be the same, making the total] iamount of duty on liquor disposed of at the: iParliamentary picnic £92 15s 6d. My cor-| jj respondent says that he has omitted Messrs; |Fox ami Sauuders from his calculation, and! |also mentions that he has taken no note of] jfthe consumption ou board the HinemoaJ |which is likely to be pretty fair, especially? |on the return. So the coals burnt on board 5 |the steamer and by the locomotive will be ] $paid for and a handsome balance left in hand; ■[to Mr Bal lance's account. F. f a I

1 The principal buildings in Dunedin will be i | illuminated on the arrival of the northern! The Mayor intends to request! |shopkeepers to keep their establishments! Jopen on that night. f I I

H Mr Barton (says the New Zeahnder.) gtevrM W very warm last nighfc wheu speaking on be-® p half of the Deceased Wife's Sister Marriagefl glßill. The chief argument urged against thefl || measure, he said, appeared to be that itSI ij| would be subversive of domestic happinessf| iand conducive to immorality if a man's*3f J|3ister-in-law were eligible as a- wife in the§! || event of the death of her sister, as she would!! ;*then become a rival to the wife. He couldfH ■^not see the force of this argument. If car-f§<; pried out strictly, no woman who was notjp ||closely related by blood to the husband® ||should bo allowed to live in a household.® |gTlie governess must be a sister, or else shell 3§would be a dangerous viva], as a deceased!?: ; :§\vife's governess was eligible as the wife ofgfg : »the widower. Bills must otherwise be brought^ ijlin to prevent a man marryiug his children's^ |fgoverness, or his cook, or his housemaid, orf|! §|else his sister must be his governess, his|| his cook, aud his mother-in-law H |||his housemaid, and so on. This is the re-|| fl&ductio ab absurdu.nl with a vengeance ! || jffl A Timaru telegram dated Friday last,|| fisays : — The engineer for the Harbor Boardp i|has condemned 500 casks of cement imported!! lihere by Guthrie and Larnach, the contrac-p || tors to supply cement for the breakwater. §| a In an article ou the progress of Welliugtong I the Chronicle says :— The portion of the city§| g to which our observations are this tinie|| 1 directed 13 wonderfully prolific in new build-P H iugs ; this will be admitted at once when we §1 1 mention that in the course of an hour's walkfi I we noticed no less than fifty-three new I if buildings of one-storey, and thirty new build- 1 ||ingß of two-storeys, making a total of eighty- 1 % three. In previous articles we treated of U. 5 i I new buildings. Thus it will be seen up toP § date we have taken notice of 238 new build- I H ings in Wellington. And we have not yet If II visited half of the city. Facts like this If H speak volumes for the progress of New Zea-g H land's capital — they need no comment. S H < >ne of the greatest attractions at the Paris 1 M Exhibition is the collection of young and| I pretty barmaids. These young people belong I a to most respectable families. Their parents | I have entered into a contract with the | I manager of the restaurant that he will re- 1 I turn them safely to their homes. Everyl j| evening a hnge break and pair of horses!! I takes them off to their house at Batignolles. | I^This house is only inhabited by them, Nogg stranger is allowed admittance, and they are g guarded by two enormous dogs that have re- 1 ceived orders to tear into pieces anyone who | dares force his way inlo the sacred precincts. | This has, so far, had tho effect of produciug | only proposals of marriage. One of the 1 young ladies, who is of Irish origin and very | beautiful, has been painted by Charles | Lnhdellej who wished to make a portrait of | her, but was obliged first to obtain the per | mission of her parents.— Atlas. I There will be some haM lighting in Com-ij mittee on the Electoral Bill. Besides thel proposed amendments which we have pre-p viously noticed, Mr Murray intends to movef| several others, the chief of which will, if j| carried, have the effect of limiting plural! votes to three— that i 3, an elector on the rolls^ in seven different electorates could only vote^t iv three districts. Mr Ilodgkinson goesf| further, and will move that only one votei shall be used by any propertj'-holder, not-i withstanding that his name may be on several^ rolls. Mr Sutton will attempt to make the| registration under the residential qualiflca-1 gation good for one year only, thus making itf| on the voter (unless he claims! the property or household franchise) K Hto renew his claim each year, which last is | Mone of the most absurd attempts at restric- | |i tion which could well be conceived.— Post. |

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