THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 209, 12 October 1878, Page 2

THE WEEK.

When Goliath went out to rueet the youthful David he was exceedingly courageous and houncible. He thought* the young stripling was powerless against him, and therefore he was perfectly fearless. Had he known that his opponent had a few well selected pebbles in his belt, and that he was a, dead shot with the sling he carried iv his hand, the giant perhaps wpuld not have b,een so boastful, but lie trusted to his superior strength and size to carry him through, and so, believing there was really nothing to be afraid of, he was actually fearless. He paid for his temerity, ag we a|l know, wjtb/ his head. Now the late feeling on the part of the Government towards the Opposition appears to me to huve been of a somewhat similar nature to that entertained by Goliath for 'David. The former believed that they were surpassingly strong and their opponents contemptibly weak, therefore they were full of bounce. They too were fearless because they could sea nothing to fear, but as soon as they discovered that they were. making a mistake intrustingtothe helplessness of the other side they immediately lowered the high tone they had assumed, their bravado ceased and they quaked with fear, and immediately agrepd {.Q do anything that was asked by £hoso upon whou'i they bao) previously shown such a disposition to trample. Thpy didn't wait to have their heads chopped off, but were quite content to retire with the loss of honor and p/pstige. And very cmUemptu. ously are they now thought ot by the public to whom they had beeu so loud in their j protestatious of what they were going to do for them. I should like to know what are the principles by which the Ministry are guided in their pqnclupf, qf the busjuess of the (Wintry. V/e ftave seen how Mr lJ.illtinqe at once collapsed upon receiving his "first check" upon the Beer fjill, aiicl hqw h,c at once withdrew one of hfs other qieasures lesf he should expose himself to a second defeat. They were " main principles iv his policy," to be sure, but that did not appear to distress him much. He was quite willing toforfeit them on condition that he was allowed

to keep his seat. A few days later, a . northern member moved for a sum to he' placed on the estimates for a road in the Bay of Islands district. According to the telegrams which appeared in the papers, Mr Macandrew opposed the motion " as it would reverse the policy of the Government," and this seems to have satisfied (he member who asked for the money. He surely must he easily put off, for if he had allowed his memory to travel back about five days, he would have remembered that about the last thing Ministers care for is a " reversal of.their policy." Why, they don't mind it a bit. Indeed, the general opinion seems to be that they rather like it. It must be a great advantage to keep two accounts at a Bank. I only speak from what I see in the newspapers, and not from personal experience, as I do not think that there is a Bank in the colony, despite the eagerness displayed by them all to get hold of deposits, that would care to be bothered with one half only of my pecuniary possessions. What set me off on this line of thought, though, was Mr Ballance's smilingly made statement that after all he did not care for the amount, he was to get from the Beer and Companies Tax. It was only a trifle of some' £40,000, and he could easily get rid of any inconvenience that might be occasioned by his being deprived of it. All that was to be done was to charge one item he had proposed to the public works instead of to the ordinary revenue account, and the difficulty was got over at once. I wonder how long and to what extent this little game of financial see-saw can be kept up without danger to the public credit. • I cut this paragraph from a Wellington newspaper the other ' day :— « Titokowaru and about twenty men paid a visit to the surveyors' camp, on the Waimate plains, on Sunday, and made themselves sociable with tne party. ' After finishing the eatables and drinkables, they returned in good order, well satisfied with the hospitality of the pakeha surveyors and the food they had provided for them. 3 '— Now I know a whole lot of Englishmen who are prepared to be always sociable and satisfied on condition that they get plenty of eatables aud drinkables without working or paying for them, but none of the papers ever say anything about them. A brief paragraph which appeared in a recent issue of the Evening Post is enough to convince me that there is a vein of satire in the editor's composition. It consisted of a very few words, and these were: "The influx of lunatics to Wellington is becoming positively alarming." It was cruel to select the season when the Parliament is in session as a fitting time for the publication of such a paragraph. I have a little story to tell, the object, of which is to show upon what sound principles banking is carried on in the colony. Jt does not matter what Bank it was, or where was situated the branch referred to. " Down South " will sufficiently designate the latter. It was mail day, and the manager was hard at work with his correspondence, when a customer whom I will call Smith was introduced into his room. Mr Smith having apologised for his intrusion at so unfortunate a time produced a letter from his pocket book — the envelope, which would probably have borne a post mark, had, he said, unfortunately been lost. The letter was to the effect that his brother had recently died at Dundee, and had left him ,£BOO. How he was to get hold of the money was what he wanted to know. The manager suggested that he should write to his friends to have it sent out through his Bank, and he would place himself iv communication with their agent at the same place to the same effect. Mr Smith hummed and hawed a little. That arrangement would not exactly suit him, as he saw his way to an excellent investment, and would like to get the money or a portion of it at once. The manager replied that he could scarcely do that without some further guarantee than the letter provided. Mr Smith endeavored at some length to persuade him, and eventually the manager, as he found the precious minutes slipping away, began to lose his temper, aud stated in as positive terms as civility and courtesy would permit that he would not let his would-be customer have the money. Thereupon Mr Smith, in pitiful accents, asked— ''Well, don't you think you could advance me thirty shillings, as my landlord is pressing me for that amount." The mannger became more and more angry. " Certainly not," was his reply, " J have suggested the only course open to you, and I may remind you that in the time you have been speaking to me you might have written the letter I advised you to send." "So I might," responded Mr Smith, " but really I don't know how I am to get paper and stamps. Would you mind lending me half-a--crown to buy them with."— " Messenger," roared the now infuriated manager, as he got up aud opened the door, " show this man out immediately." Now, I think this shows how great aud how wise are the caution and discretion exercised by our Bank managers when they won't even advance half-a-crp.wn on an £SOO security, Lest anybody 'should be disposed to call in question the reliability of tue foregoing story, I may say that I am prepared to vouch for the truth of it.