Correspondence.

Colonist, Issue 12, 1 December 1857, Page 3

Correspondence.

THE SALTWATER BRIDGE, AND SANITARY IMPROVEMENTS.

To the Editor of the Colonist. Mb. Editor, —I am not sure whether much attention has been called to the famous old Nelson Bridge, so often baptized by salt water. But I suspect nervous folks care little at present about the felicity of crossing it, so shaky and venerable has it become. Having stood for nearly half a generation, it may be contemplated as one of our historical ornaments, almost as narrative to bardic fancy as tumuli of cockle shells, Maori relics of other days;—not quite so interesting as the tumulus of brave Roman Cockles, who you know " kept the bridge," beating off a whole army, and really beating Porsena's invaders by swimming to land' after the whole structure had sunk beneath him. There was a hero for you!—l guess some of your Nelson braves want to do the like at high water sometimes, when the Chinese Tuscans come to fetch away your'gold, if the ancient Rutuli of these lands do not attempt something of the kind more speedily. Well, whatever valiant cock may fight on the bridge for anything, or against any odds, commend me to a safe footing at the east side of it; for it is sure to topple down, and I should not like the mud under it: lam fearful it would not be wholesome, that same.

Upon second thoughts, Mr. Editor, I'm calculating, it would not be a badish spec, to give the old lady a shove, some of these tides, lest the quality on horseback should happen ought just there.' It's a nasty spot; and it would be a sad pity like if those who are paid a trifle for their curiosity in looking after confounded rubbish of that kind should get a sickener when on duty. Don't I you see they know the rotten jade is at far end < i Do toll us what should be done with her. Per-v haps it would be as well though to advertise her first to see what she will fetch; and to offer a considerable smart premium, say £50 to the architect or engineer of the college that is to be our grand set off some day,—beating hollow the merely useful erections intended by a book of English designs for schools, &c, published twenty years ago, and to be had I suspect, for nothing. But lo! Ira dreaming of palatial school houses when I only went to get rid of an antiquated Pons Asinorum —hang the Latin ! It comes quite saucily across one, even on a rickety " auld Brig,"—and never tells one whether it's made of Rott-n wood or green wood; still which ever it is, it does very well for any conceited donkey. Yet I'm not so far out after all; for can't you see, with your usual 'cuteness, a new state bridge would be qmte a go-a-head affair in the eyes of the young gentlemen looking from the towers of Nelson Alma Mater ? My stars and comets! wouldn't they rub their hands to see it!— Still I reckon it's no use talking : that grey chip of a Robinson will come with his government team of old roadsters before long and whip away Avith our revered arch; and I should not wonder if he gets two or three fellows to make a small sluice gate, yes a sluice as they call it to shut out the sea. And then we shall only have a plain hard road—level as a plank without a bit of poetry about it. And then, inside of that, a drain meeting Stafford's. Keen sprig that Stafford:—got the folks blinded while he improved his own land—they say at their expense ; but that's too good to be true; for they do praise him, my eye they do for all he did —right ! quick about too, and all for himself. They say he ' nearly broke a vessel in laughing at Monro and other sharp coves who were too far down in the flats to see half of it. Its funny enough though, for all their winking at it. But it's said old sure and steady Robinson is dodging him, along this here mud flat. The old chap says its a shame to have such fine manure without crops. He says too it isn't healthy, and all that; and for a little tax of a few shillings or so on lots of stinking acres, he'll make the whole flat rise up in flourishing loveliness as pretty as ever smiled on the heart of any old bachelor, and change the nuisance into Elysian fields of health. Think of that: I've a notion that cuts his Excellency's Secretary out and out. But after all he's a green stick who can't only do that. Robinson's circular saw would rip him up fiuely ; but he's too hollow they now say and isn't worth cutting. So Monro shewed at West Waimea while old Kerr dreamt in his chair, and he slashed away behind our prime minister's back, telling the few that waited for a little grog, he hinted of, that our great man sat and spouted to a standing council—the boobies—thinking it King-like to do so. But "daft Davy" winked sagely, and told 'em all as how Great George himself stood to talk to the big Lords «>n like occasions; but he was forced to admit, —that he was.—Her sweet majesty did sit, for certain reasons—of state, of course"; —and the gallant dons wore not jealous of their dignity—because she was a nice lady, and not an old one either like some of t'other sex ! — Bless you, how two or three, that had been ready to cry'for want of something, did laugh ! Such a jolly laugh, from men in tears, delighted the Doctor, lots upon lots. He was so pleased, he put down that laugh for " cheers," " great applause," and all that in several other parts of his nicely written oratory, thinking, canny fellow, it was meant for several other spanking touches of his encoreous speech, and would look finely in print; it was deftly done; one would not have notioned he d been so pert. It was a pity the folks nearly all walked off with their manners, before he'd done, without civil thanks for all his trouble to be entertaining. The chuckle over poor Stafford was a tidy trick for a smartish friend.

1 don't guess who dotted down Davy's rigmarole, or roll-my-vig,—l can't say which is best; for one means to trick off a noisy waddling duck, and the other to level a ridgy piece of dirt: but as our M.D. is a shrewd one, —so you may see from his title, which means —one way, mad doctor, and 'father way Daffy's Medicine, or Moaro's Delectable moonshine': but which ever way it all is, that veritable oration was a capi-tal tale ? Only, in pricking out its beauties, the deft boy who did it, tailed off the best part—"the tuft of a lion's tail," like that which Lander says the " monarch flourished, instead of a sceptre,' —the African king of Boossa, when he dismissed his audience. Now I cannot at all come at it, why the most graceful, tufty decoration was omitted, abscinded I may say; but Cicero himself was sometimes odd, so no wonder of Davy, if a thought did happen to peep into him "through chinks that time hath made." I've a fancy, when he was putting the last touches to his recapitulation at home, before the glass—not grog, he d had enough—he saw a certain temperance face with a sprinkle of white powder on it, and he bolted under the bedclothes with nothing but his hair sticking out the wrong way ! There, be sure, he slept, because, as the very best of his long harangue said, the peroration, he had felt " droutky;" and then he and all the rest had looked affectionately towards " the tap-room" down stairs. Then there had been a great sensation." How the feet rattled—off. And Davy had followed to keep 'em in good humour, by opening his " large heart in small room," and jollifying with his imagined supporters till midnight. But all this glory had faded, leaving nothing better than the turkey red of the candle snuff, and its odour of xipward gas—things, just then, too terrible for a sweating hero or his night visions. Somnus and phantasm ! how they made him snore through the " wee drapie!" Yet were they soon propitious to one so prepared for unusual inspiration. Ye skies, how you opened to his winged spirit! It soared, and soared—until, afraid of going a thought too far, it dropt, like a feather in a calm, on the rail of an improvement that smiled under a gas lamp, where Salt-water bridge once shook. There he sat as a bird of might—sacred in its littleness to Typo. Greatly does he gaze at the queen of Heaven, but more at what was lately a dreadful, loathsome mud flat." 'Tis now eoverted from offensive nature's pest to something resembling Crusoe's—aye, Robinson's if you will— "dehciousvale," oncecalled " Washington, Valley." The beautiful sight is too much for our unfortunate bird. He sees the renown of another whose throne he should have filled, filled full as a sausage. His posteriors, sad feathers that they are, droop mournfully. The incense of delightful gardens overpowers him. Hi 3 skin rises; all its downy tenderness feathers up ; in ruffled recollections of a fame won by another,- —

lost for ever to himself! He can endure no morej a cry arises—his wings spread—" more pork ' moans through the night. Our sad sleeper awakes, and, I guess, our sleepy reader nods. Adieu.

Saltwater Bridge, Nov. 24,1857.

To the Editor of the Colonist. Sir, —A short time since your paper contained an extract from the Leader, entitled Women and Work, wherein a lady deploring the fearful amount of destitution caused by the large surplus of labonr in every department of female* industry, recommends as an antidote for this increasing evil, the training of a large portion of the sex for those branches of employment which have hitherto been considered as exclusively appertaining to the male population, such as medicine, mechanism, bookkeeping, lecturei-s, and others. Now, any germ of a suggestion thrown out for the ameliorationeven of a tithe of human misery, merits the attention of every friend to humanity. What though here and there may be found some crusty disciple of theold school taking a crotchetty view of the innovation. Yet even those, if such there be, must with others who know something of the matter, look straightforward in the face of facts, and acknowledge that destitution is the frequent destiny of a great number of females in our fatherland. It may be thought there is no need here to meddle with things afar off, inasmuch as our colonies generally are pretty well exempt altogether from such an appalling amount of social misery. _ Nelson is so unquestionably, almost invariably, is the answer given by Mr. Paterfamilias to the enquiries after the health of his better half. Wiry, Mrs. is not at all well; she has overworked herself; she has too much to do. Yes, and I may appeal to the majority of our lady readers for the correctness of my assertions, that so far is scarcity of employment from being the incubus \mder which we groan, that the opposite extreme of things is the case. And the growing multiplicity of household cares and necessities which must be met by everyday exertion, renders the routine of many a woman's duties an unceasing round of laborious, wearying toil. On they go, working, watching, hoping amid the trial and unrest of life, bearing, a practical similitude to the verbs hi grammar, to be, to do, to suffer. Just was the sentiment from the eloquent pen of one of our female writers in high life—

Warriors and statesmen have their meed of praise, And what they do or suffer men record! But the long sacrifice of womans' days Passes without a thought—without a word; And many a holy straggle for the sake Of duties sternly, faithfully fulfilled; For which the anxious mind must watch and wake, - And the strong feelings of the heart be stilled— Goes by unheeded as the summers' wind, And leaves no memory and no trace behind! We speak not to condemn, and as sweeping assertions very seldom admit of a general application, so there have been and are many exceptions to the unhonoured heroism embodied in those lines. Our sex has from time to time furnished subjects of contemplation for the poet and painter. And specimens of the beautiful and true in female character have been successively written and talked about. Yet, after all, what is life made up of? Separate, if possible, the vast expanse of waters into the minute drops whose infinitude constitutes the whole. Singly they are nothing, but oceans cannot exist without them. Even so does life consist of little tilings, and it must be a truism accepted by all, that to take away the comparative trifling common place detail ofwomans real every day duties, and lie would be a blank—a dreary desert without an oasis. A word to the wise. It is our peculiar province to attend to the little things, a due regard to the first things that demand attention, their proper execution with all possible diligence, so the next in order will fall easy when made to fit in its right place. I think the Americans about right for regularly teaching mathematics in girls' schools. Such a study must materially assist in forming a correct judgrrent—rin establishing right views of the reality of tangible truth—in the strengthening of the mind and the increase of its power over the body, that so in proportion to the attainment of this mental qualification shall we be inclined the less to indulge in idle fancies, or to inhabit worlds of our own creation. Cannot tell whether " Miss Ophelia" learnt this branch of tuiton, but it was very clear that h.ev demonstrations were fully of plain sense, her propositions replete with kindness aud humanity, and she evidently arrived at logical conclusions, while those who claim her acquaintance must adaiit that all her household matters were arranged on the. most approved scientific plans. But it was the little things to which she gave such practical attention- that compelled Dinah in despair to take her whiffs, and Mrs. St. Clair to express her disrelish of such an everlasting systematic business. Touchingly beautiful is the graphic picture drawn by the inspired penman, when he enumerates the qualities of an excellent worn -v Line upon line he tells of her virtue and confiding love; the labours of her hand and early rising ; her wisdom in buying, and judgment in dressing; her industrious providing for necessities, and careful supply for future wants; her hospitality and kindness ; readiness to help the needy, combined with the most thorough superintendence of her own household, whose happiness and trust are her rich rewtrd. And the writer closes this sublime, yet simple delineation of moral lovliness with a wholesome reflection on the evanescence and vanity of mere outward attractions, and the more intrinsic value of those inner qualifications that prompt the heart and life in a right direction and enhance the worth of the possessor to a price far above rubies. No exaggeration this; nothing Utopian, within the reach of all in its theory and practice; the greatest misfortune is, that it meets with so seldom so partial an application. That its adoption would lead to glorious results is an unmistakeable fact. But the means made use of for the accomplishment of the end rests much with individuals. The peculiarly sensitive nature of woman leads her to look for the attainment of happiness wherever it may be found, but frequent disappointments and sorrow embitter her lot, and she altogether relinquishes the search, or contents herselt with the small atom that falls to her share. But let her only universally raise a lofty standard of moral excellence high as the heavens above her head, aud great desires of earthly good low as the dust beneath her feet, then the best ripe fruits of refined and substantial happiness shall hang within reach; she may take eat herself and be satisfied, and while not alone in the world, will have the increasing joy of dispensing blessings for others. Alas for many hundreds, yea, thousands of women in Britain,' thrown upon their own resources; many from whom the arch enemy has wrenched the near and dear, in social connection, endeavouring from day to day to earn a bare subsistence by needlework. Delicate females nursed in the lap of luxury and indulgence, doomed by the melancholy reverses of fortune which there may be hourly met with, to toil on amidst the privations and obscurity of a poverty and wretchedness made more gloomy and dark by the bright reminiscences of the back ground. What if the better state of things around us here happily prevent our becoming familiar to such scenes of suffering misery. Yet a telescopic view of matters brings us near to the reality of the existing difficulties of providing anything like renumerative employment for a large number of females necessarily dependent on their own exertions. Thus deplorably wretched is rendered the lot of many, while their known and unknown sorrows stand out in bold relief among the saddest of earth's sad scenes a chronic evil. • Can nothing be done for a remedy? It is true very much lias been said about women's rights. The term has been rendered almost a nondescript by the tortuous variations it has undergone, according to the judgment or taste of its. professed advocates. Some worthy plodders have thought over the matter and setitssubjects down as literally hewers of wood and drawers of water. Others largely imbued with sentimentalities have invested it with angelic attainments and accorded a seat on the heights of the sublime. While the medium shillishallies depict the charms of1 a butterfly existence, and tell us woman has a right to bask amid sunshine and flowers. But a leaf must have been turned over, for we saw a lecture announced for delivery in one of the Home papers on Women's Wrongs arid their remedy. How the lecturer

handled this very prolific subject we cannot tell. Should we meet with a report of the discussion at any future day, we promise to give our readers the benefit of it. The wrongs of woman —in no Hector-like fashion do they require to be treated. They present no field for sickly sentiment savouring not of the ideal or imaginative—they figure in bold and legible characters amid the evils enrooted by prejudice and custom. Their name and form alike are legion, which like the prophets roll are written in mourning, lamentation, and woe. Is there no alternative. Should-it remain any longer a question of doubtful policy as to whether females should receive any other training than what has hitherto constituted their line of demarcation. Cannot something else be given them without attempting the slightest encroachment upon thebounds of feminine modesty and prudence. ' Prevention is better than cure,"' and any scheme thrown out for general good must claim title to consideration or be cast away as useless. No fear of women losing her social position by putting within her reach the moans of self-rescue from poverty and dependence

AZILE,

Nelson, November 26th, 1857.

To the Editor of the Colonist. Sib.—Your leading article of Tuesday last brought to my recollection an inquest lately held in the Wairau district on the body of an unfortunate young female who had taken strychnine for the purpose of depriving herself of life ; and I do not think it out of place to pass a few remarks as to the nature of the verdict returned. The jury, under the guidance of a medical gentleman acting as coroner, found a verdict of "selfmurder in consequence of temporary insanity." Temporary insanity, or called by its proper appellation, '" mania transitoria" is a term, the introduction of which is much protested against, particularly so in England under late jurisdiction, where .sometimes in cases of infanticide the offender appeared in the eyes of the jurymen to be rather retractive, and excited their compassion, causing much mischief in the acquittal of offenders, when by mature consideration real crime would have been detected

Some years ago the writer of this had an opportunity of conversing with one of the most celebrated authorities on|she continent, and president of the highest court of medicine in Prussia, under whose observation and decision there were yearly very many doubtful and intricate cases. Yet although he had for twenty-five years filled this position most ably, he considered that during that time he never had the opportunity of being able to state that a crime had been pepetrated under the influence of " mania transitoria." The term, therefore, is nearly thrown out of the science of psyckiatrix, since, through the exertions of such men as Esqnirol Guislain, Lotze, Leubuscher, and others eminent in the profession, such progress has been made, that the inapplicability of the term has rendered it obsolete. • «. It may he excusabb in. cases of difficulty to grapple with such vague terms, but it is quite deplorable to see ignorance making use of them. Where —in the late Wairau case—was the evidence (if there ever can be evidence for a chimera) that could possibly prove it to be a case of temporary insanity ? Is it to be found in the exact calculations of the disease, where she had come to that fatal extremity from the very beginning up to the end where she took the strychnine and died ? The presence of reason is here so clear before us, that it would be insanity to call it " mania transitoria/' .. But there was no post mortem examination ot the body, which possibly may have furnished us with the palpable cause —not of insanity—but the probable immensity of her mental sufferings. Is it so astonishing that the female mind, disappointed, wronged perhaps beyond expression, and misguided by bad coinp.uiionship and books in the style of Byron's "Don Juan," should come to the resolution of throwing from her an insupportable life? When Gocthies Werfcher caused suicide, and Schiller's "Charles Moor" seduced to imitation, why should not Don Juan determine the last struggle of the female heart, which may have felt deep°er than we imagine, and suffered perhaps more than we can be aware of? Had the verdict been simply—Death by strychnine taken by the deceased, it would have honoured the interested juridical body more, than to play with a doubtful term which they, in spite of a given evidence, seem to explain thus — A fool who kills himself. I am, Sir, yours obediently, THETO. I ■ - i To the Editor of the Colonist. Sir, —Will you allow me, through the means, of, your impartial paper, to direct the attention of the Central or Local Board, or both together, to the benefit we of Waimea West have or desire from the Education Act as it now stands. The district of Waimea West is like the framors of the act; it is long and narrow, and but one school in it exclusive of Moutere, and not a road in it. -I believe there has never been one shilling of Government money spent in the district, with the exception of a few pounds at the doors of one or other would-be gentlemen. It is three miles from where I live to the only school we have, and two- j thirds of the year it is impassable for children by ; reason of water, or other obstacle. Now, Sir, I wish to know what, we are to get in return for the money which has been so arbitrarily exacted in the shape of household assessment, unless they , (the Government) take a leaf out of Omar Pacha's book and pass an act to make all in the district between the age of 4 and 75 go and make roads. Then we can send our children to school; but until that or something else is done, our children must remain at home, in many instances their | education being entirely neglected. If we are \ to have general education, let it be attained by all; ! let us have a school.where our children can attend, and something like a road to it, and you will not , find us dilatory to contribute towards its support, j I remain, yours, &c, &c, RICHARD JOHNSTON. | Waimea West, November 22nd. (

To the Editor of the Colonist. S IBi Your correspondent' Citizen' has opened a subject for discussion which I think merits the at? tention and approbation of all classes of the community, viz., the subject of Building Societies. That it would be desirable to establish such a society in Nelson, we need only to consider that there'is not house accomodation at present for the people, without sometimes two, or in some instances, three families cramming themselves into one small house, which is at all times an undesirable and uncomfortable make-shift. That it is desirable also when we think, of the enormously high-rent .which is being asked for small cottages, such as from twelve to twenty shillings per week, which is more than a working man can afford to pay—that is a certain fact. Another reason is that the man who lives by his labour at what we call day-work, would have an inducement to save a few shillings per week to pay into such a fund, and would hope that at some future time he would be able, to have a house . s qi his own and no rent .to pay. , . It would afford an opportunity also for persons in easy circumstances to invest, with a certainty of good interest without the possibility of loss, for loss there could not be. Besides it would give an impetous to labour of all kinds, such as. sawyers, carpenters, glaziers, painters, plasterers, brickmakers, lime-burners, masons, bricklayers and these labourers, and numbers besides which I cannot enumerate. It would benefit the merchants too, whose business it is to send for the necessary fittings, as.locks, hinges, nails, glass, &c, &c. I cordially agree with ' Citizen' in the advantages lie points out as likely to ' accrue by taking a step in the right direction,' and I can.see some others .in the distance, I believe the ladies of Nelson would do their part towards attaining an object so very desirable as having a house of their'own; arid the house being obtained, it would be furished comfortably according to their means, and in a great part-by their own carefulness and industry. I have known scime instances of this kind in Nelson which are really worthy of all praise. Fellowworking men, what say you to these things ? If w unite together and agree to assist one another we

can do almost anything. I should say let every man think the matter over in his own mind,' and talk it over seriously with his wife (if he has one), and make all needful preparation, that when the society is started all will be ready to give it their ready and cordial support. I must say with 'Citizen,' that I hope some body more capable will take the matter up, and that one and all, (like Cornish men) will, say, Let us have a Buildins? Society, and the sooner the better. ° . . . A WORKING MAN.