CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 225, 3 October 1879, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor op thk " Evening Mail."

Sir,— When I read this morning's Colonist I was delighted. Give ear O ! ye gods, and be astonished ye little fishes (but don't leap out of the water) for Nelson at last is to become famous,— Nelsou, the City at which the finger of scorn has been pointed, which has been derided as Sleepy Hollow, neglected aud insulted, for has uot the scoffer cried, can any good thing come out of (not Nazareth, but) Nelson ? At last the discovery has burst upon us like a thunder clap, that in our very midst we have a great political genius , whose patriotic buzzum for months past must have been heaving and groaning like a Mis sisippi steam-boat with the safety valve screwed down ready to bust up with high pressure (not of steam, but) political zeal. Wiil not the name of Nelson now spread throughout the land and be the envy of New Zealand ? 'Tis true she may not be famous for the collective inherent wisdom of her citizens, but, as the glory of the moon is but borrowed lustre from tbe sun, so the glory of her fame will be the reflected brilliancy of ber chief political luminary, Councillor Thomas Harley. Here have we been for weeks in a ferment of political agitation, tryiug to secure the best men, and iv our very midst— and we did not know it — is a man, whose creed of political economy throws every candidate into the shade. What a wonderful Minister of Public Works and Finance he would make ! Had Sir George Grey been able to secure such a genius in his Cabinet, the country would have had unbounded confidence that, not ouly the Nelson and West Coast, but every other railway would have been made without the necessity of applying to England fcr a loan. Wh.it is hia political creed, do you ask ? Wh}', first get the work done, and then refuse to pay for it ; at least that is the latest example he has giveu us iv the City Council. Besides, what an influence he would exercise on the proprieties of the House ! As Hamlet, said of Yorick, he is a man of iufinite resources j if an Opposition member was boring the Ministry, he could act his latest dodge at the Council, pull out his pipe and light it, and all the eloquence of the Opposition would end in smoke. The discovery of what Councillor Harley calls bis political opinions, like all other great discoveries, has beeu made in the most simple manner. A statement signed by him in the Colonist implies that I, Vfuitas, the blackguard, havo with malignant injustice and contemptible meanness eondemued his " political opiuious," while I was simple enough to believe that I was only denouncing hid vag-irii-s which 1 bave already particularised, lledaimsthe high soundi:**,** privilege of i freedom of thought, moral liberty, truth°and justice, &c, but to discover a grain of the hitter in his whole composition would require one of Sain Weller'a forty-thousaud horsepower Uouble barrelled microscopes. I am, &c. Nelson, October 2, 1879. Veritas.