NELSON. [From the Nelson Examiner, Feb. 5.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 265, 12 February 1848, Page 2

NELSON. [From the Nelson Examiner, Feb. 5.]

We scarcely know whether v weisho'uldrcongratulate our fellow* settlers, or ' cotidble with with them — whether to express our^ satisfaction or regret, at what we are going to nounce. The truth is that, opposed as these /eelings are, each enters so largely into the event we refer to; that- the one counterbalances the other. Nelson is - about^ to > lose three of its most distinguished settlers — his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief having offered to Mr. Domett the Colonial Secretaryship, and to Mr. Fox the appointment of At-torney-General, for the Southern Province of the colony, and' to the Hon. C. A. Dillon, an appointment in the General Government at Auckland — and each has v been accepted. On^ narrow and selfish grounds we should most sincerely regret • any event' that' would take from our small community either one of those gentlemen. Each has so thoroughly identi-

fied himself with the political struggle the settlement has felt bound to make, and taken on all occasions so prominent a part in our discussions and public proceedings, that his presence cannot fail to be missed on all future occasions under that new state of things which it has been his chief labour to help to produce. On the other hand, it is no mean compliment to us, and to our cause, that three of our leading gentlemen have been selected to fill the highest and most responsible appointments vrhich his Excellency has the power of bestowing under his Government. Whatever private regrets we may therefore have (and no one has more) for the local loss we are about to sustain, on public grounds, which should outweigh all others, these appointments give us the most unfeigned satisfaction. We know of no other gentlemen in the settlement, or in the colony, into whose hands we would have so readily entrusted the government of our affairs, and we are satisfied that had they remained among us, the settlement, in the exercise of the privileges about to be bestowed upon it, would have shown, in the most marked and conclusive manner, that this sentiment is the one felt by the great majority of our population. To the gentlemen themselves, we offer our best congratulations. " The winning of honour," says Bacon, "is but the revealing of a man's virtue and worth, without disadvantage." In the career of public life which they are now entering, they will be better able to advance those great principles of universal freedom and jnstice, which found in them at all times the most zealous and consistent advocates; and the promotion of those objects will, we are sure, be the best recompense for the toils and responsibilities they will have to encounter.

His Excellency the Governor-in- Chief, accompanied by Mrs. Grey, arrived here on Saturday last. His Excellency has devoted much time during the week to interviews with the setters. On Tuesday, he and Mrs. Grey rode over the Waimea as far as the residence of the Hon. C. A. Dillon. His Excellency, we believe, will leave this evening for Akaroa.