The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 99, 26 April 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1879.

Councillor Harlet was in one of his amusing moods last night. It is a pity that he had not given some intimation of his intentions in order that the public might have had an opportunity of being present at the cheap and comic entertainment which he provided in the Council Chamber. Unsheathing his knife of cutting eloquence, he fairly ran a- muck, slashing at the Finance Committee for not asking the public to sanction a loan which they had been professionally advised it was impossible U> raise just now ; stabbing the banker for giving such advice ; and ripping up the unhappy editor who had dared to comment upon a matter largely affecting the public interest. The members of the Finance Committee appeared to be quite capable of taking care of themselves ; the banker, we were glad to find, on passing this morning the establishment over

which he presides, has not deemed it necessary to put up hi 3 shutters ; and the editor atill survives and is able to say a few words on bis own behalf. The learned Councillor, in his attack upon ourselves, got hold of the word " scurrilous '* —or, to quote riiore correctly, " scurf ulous " —and fairly worried it to death, showing, however, in the course of his remarks, that his acquaintance with itß real meaning was just about on a par with his knowledge of its orthography. The head and front of out offending appears to have been that in stating our belief that the City Surveyor would be prepared to undertake any work that might be cast upon him by j the Council, we made use of the figurative expression that he would, if necessary, take charge of the Channel Fleet, and went on to hint that in the event of such a contingency happening, it might be the worse for the Fleet. Herein lay the scurrility of our remarks. Not being desirous of rendering ourselves as ridiculous as our acduser, we must decliue to make any defence to a charge based upon such a foundation. Councillor Harley invited us to apologise to Mr Lightfoot. Unconscious of having written a word that could give offence to any reasonable man, and certainly being free from any desire to do so, we really cannot bring ourselves to accede to Mr Harley's request, but this need not prevent us from offering to Mr Lightfoot our hearty sympathy upon the humiliating position in which he was last night placed by his self-constituted champion, who wished the Council to pass a vote of confidence in their Surveyor "owing to the scurrilous article in the Evening Mati,," and for no other reason whatever. Councillor Everett, seeing that the Council were being asked to make fools of themselves, and willing to appease his offended brother's wrath by meeting him half-way, pn posed a vote of confidence oure and simple and unconditional. This Crs Harley and Little distinctly declined to endorse. Their confidence was still in the embryo state, having ouly been conceived on Tuesday night after reading the article in the Mail, and by their votes they evidently wished it to be clearly understood that to that article alone it owed its conception. Had Mr Ligbtf oot been present last night while the comedy, in which his name was brought bo prominently forward, was being acted, he most assuredly would in all devoutneas have breathed the prayer so often offered up before by others under far less tryiug circumstances—Save me from my frieads. | | I