The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, MAY 19, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 118, 19 May 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, MAY 19, 1879.

The Government it appears, does not regard the. Waimate Plain difficulty as being in any way disposed of, as we find from our telegrams to-day that they are still continuing to despatch reinforcements to that district. Such au indication of their being in earuest may perhaps have the effect of bringing the natives to their proper bearings. Our Waimea readers are reminded of the entertainments to be given at the Richmond Agricultural Hall to night and to-morrow night in aid of the local fire Brigade. Ifc is to be feared that the weather will militate against the financial success of the entertainment, which has been prepared for so praiseworthy an object.

It is always good fun to outsiders to read accounts of a fire in Wellington or rather of the proceedings of those whose business it is to put it out. They have two Brigades in that favored City, between the members of which the bitterest jealousy appears to exist, aud they never meet at a lire but they squabble about somethiug or other. But not content with quarrelling when they ought to be trying to extinguish the flames, they have now taken to carrying out their warfare in the columns of the local press. Captain WJ ! teford, of one of the Brigades, has opened the battle by a long letter*, in which repeated references to Captain Moss, of the other, are made in such expressions as the following :~" At this stage Captain Mosa came to me in a bumptious manner, and ordered me to send my men to assist in pumping his engine."—" He thought proper to repeat his bumptious order,*' &C-" 1 am happy to iuform this bumptious man that the members of the Wellington V.F.B. are hot. serfs, and had he put himself in the position of a gentleman, and asked for assistance as any gentleman would, none of them would have refused." Captain Moss's reply is not yet to hand. It must be pleasant for the people of Wellington to know that such a spirit of enmity exists between the two Brigades, upon whose efforts they rely for protection against fire. Ouu telegrams inform us of the capture of Weiberg, who, it will be remembered, was arrested in Queensland on a charge of being concerned in the robbery of gold from the R.M.S. Avoca, and while pretending to show the police where a portion of it was to be found at the bottom of a river, cleverly contrived to make his escape, aud has been at large for many months. The monthly meeting of the Permanent Building Society will be held this evening, and the annual meeting on Wednesday next. Mk. Walter Johnston M.H.R., has brought a hornets' neat about hi 3 ears in | Wellington, the cause of offence, and a very just one as it appears, haviug been that, as chairman of a publio meeting, called to consider the desirability of establishing a free library, be took advantage of his position to introduce his views on politics, and referred to history to back up his views " Men," said he, " who know the history of England, would not submit to improper dealings with public lands," &c. This was quite enough to bring the papers down upon him, and Mr Johnston must longere this have repented him of his his anxiety to make the little world of Wellington believe that he was learned in history. The New Zealander flays him alive in a savage article, commencing thus contemptuously :— " And Mr Walter Johnston, M.H.R. for the district of Manawatu, in the colony of New Zealand, actually knows the history of England !" and concluding in the following complimentary strain: — " The next time this learned M H.R. commits the indecency of abusing his position as chairman of a purely non-political meeting for the pmpose of displaying his political malice snd his historical ignorance, we strongly advise him to bring his history book in his pocket, for his mouth may betray him. His conduct on this occasion was at once irdecenf, iguoranfc, and impudent—indecent in introducing such toDies on such an occasion, ignorant in attempting to talk about things he knew nothing of, and impudent in assuming (hat other people would not see through his presumption." The pheasants, quail, and hares have been granted a short reprieve by the weather department, but few of the long list of those licensed to kill them having ventured out in the present miserable state of the weather. Some of the more ardent sportsmen have not suffered themselves to be dete-red by any such considerations and have taken to the hills with their guns aud dogs, and it 's to be hoped that they will be rewarded by meeting with good sport for they certainly will have earned it. Many of the papers at home have recently loaded their columns with disgustingly fall details of the demeanour, words, and actions of the murderer Peace who was righteously doomed to the scaffold where he pe ! d the penalty of his brutal crime. Some of the lending weeklies have referred to this style of literature iv strong terms' of condemnation, and the Saturday llcuiew makes the following pertinent remarks :~ "We are wont, as Englishmen, to make much of the power of the Press, and every year a Jarge number of after-dinner speeches are employed in celebrating the purity of its tone and the loftiness of its aims. And yet this powerful and virtuous institution is unable, of its own motioa, to resist the importunities of the most degraded of its supporters, so that even a journal of European position like the Times, on the occasion of the death of one of the lowest of criminals, is forced to devote a leading article to an analysis of his character, and to fill three columns of small print with a recital of his last breakfast and his dying utterances. There is probably no living statesman, or writer, or artist, who could count upon such obsequious attention ffter his death."