A NELSON ELECTION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 285, 30 November 1881, Page 2

A NELSON ELECTION.

To the Editor of the " Evening Mail." . Sir,— l happened en Tuesday last to drop * D to the Court House to pass away the time fl ll the hoar of nomination, when I observed the Tsry familiar and kindly face of our old ex-member looking- «[aite at home on the Bench, and evidently absorbed in the merits of the case before him. I found the coming member was the plaintiff, and the hour of noon beingat hand one of the counsel suggested an adjournment for a short time under the exceptional circumstances. It is, however, the opinion of the other side and of the Court that the course of justice may not be interrupted and the case proceeds, the clock strikes and with a few others the writer departs, but not before a slight glance at the worthy R.M. reveals a temporary flush on the face of tOB old political war horse and a few thoughts crowd upon me calling up the past. I leave for the old Council Chamber and find the old clock there not up (o time. A quiet old clock that. Once, in the old times, he did not even stick on an important occasion. During the few minutes, imaginary familiar faces appeared, erstwhile friendß, but now coldly neglectful, or reedy to strike — patrimony, borrowed money, expenditure, and ministerial gifts of place have happily weeded them from among ua, but Btill we live and flourish, not rapidly, or as tho Rata does upon the life blood of its

neighbours, but independently and surely, neither asking nor taking from other provisions. The Returing Office (sboi 1 * also clerk of the R. M. Court, and severs his connexion for a wbile) the candidate who is defendant in the case proceeding in hia absence, the reporters who partake of the chameleon character of the proceedings, put in un ap pearanee, tbe public, 12 in number. After heariGg the writ read, there launch out two j persons, who propose and second in a few well chosen words the candidate, who, in the short space of Eeven minutes, is an M.HR. I miss the excitemsnt of old, and conclude j that a royal ioa r l to elections bus at last been found. A shuffle of racers and of feet and the election of a tr.etaber for the city is ever, and this ia by a people who have but recently been outraged, who have ever mads sacrifices for the colonial pooJ.end wi! J do so aonin; ancn —there may be a borrowed money bone to pick, and as ut-ual the dry bona may be allotted to us conditionally that we send bark the marrow. Verily centralism, a3 carried out, is a enrse to the country, and a special injury to this portion of New Zealand. I am, &c,, " Old Identity." i . I