The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 129, 3 August 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1866.

The Nelson Examiner has broken out in a fresh place, made the wonderful discovery that the Board of Works is a failure, and that the time for municipal institutions has at length anived. Our local Rip Van Winkle, after a long period of hybernation, has risen from his lethargy, rubbed his eyes, sneezed, taken a draw or two of his pipe, aud resolved to do the amiable to the nascent mayor. Our contemporary was not suiliciently awake, however, to discern anything in the election proceedings of Monday, but "chaff, jokes, and laughs" which were vented at the expense of what he is pleased to term ironically, the " institution." The same state of mental obfuscatiou induced him to see, or fancy he saw, what no one else of any intelligence observed, that ; ' two or three sensible speakers showed the evils of the present system." As the distorted fancy of Don Quixote, converted the free and easy damsels who surrounded him into ladies and princesses, so our benighted contemporary must have been similarly fascinated when he took for granted that the personal attack made by a small knot of local spouters on some of the members of the Board, was an expression of opinion on the part of the respectable ratepayers of Nelson. The assumption by the tailors of Tooley-street, of the influence and prerogatives of the men of England, was not more ridiculous than the affectation of importance by the diminutive clique whom our half-see-ing contemporary has taken under his protection. Had not the writer been suffering a recovery from a long period of drowsiness, he would not have committed himself to such fustian as " the groove had grown too deep" — "nine years of friction," and so on, terms no doubt suggested by a return to wakefulness after a long and heavy sleep. The Examiner blames the " apathetical indifference of the ratepayers ;" insults his fellow townsmen by telling them that, "to be elected on the Nelson Board of Works would not satisfy the ambition of most people ;" urges the few remaining patriots to " ferret out the ablest men they can find ;" and winds up an inconsequential rigmarole with the contradictory assertion that it "appears fashionable in Nelson to snub the whole affair, and whilst snubbing it to cling to it with an energy aud tenacity which arc very remarkable." The great interest taken by the ratepayers on Monday and Tuesday, in the election of members of the Board of Works, is a sufficient refutation of the charge of apathy. The fact that the three retiring members were returned by a large majority is conclusive evidence that, whatever the Examiner may think, the ratepayers know how to value the " institution " so pooh poohed by him in his new-born zeal for a more respectable system. It is evident they do not see through the same eyes as he in reference to the immaculate virtues of the very " sensible persons " who discover nothing but evil in the present Board, As institutions conducive o to self-government are necessarily of slow growth in new countries, it is the part of true wisdom to accept every instalment of good, aud to make the most of present advantages, instead of underrating the good that offers itself, and writing down the institutions of the country. This the ratepayers of Nelson need no oracle to inform them of, and their conduct in reference to the late election is conclusive that they know how to make the most of the present " institution " till something better is offered for their choice. The ratepayers may fairly reply to the diatribe of the Examiner, and ask him why he has not before discovered that the Board was so useless an institution ? What effort has he made, as the leading journalist of the

town, to " ferret" out men possessing greater intelligence and integrity, than those who now constitute the Board ? Why has he not during the nine long years of inaction, roused the public energies, and stimulated the dormant zeal to demand a better state of things? Can he plead not guilty to the charge of snubbiug the local institutions of the town, to such an extent, that persons taking up his paper in other parts of the colony would come to no other conclusion than that Nelson has no local institutions, but is a place with a single street leading, to use the words of one of "the sensible persons " at the meeting on Monday, from nothing to nowhere ? How far has he, as in duty bound, acted as the adviser of the Board of Works, censured its irregularities, rebuked its neglect of duty, and complained of the apathetical indifference of the ratepayers? Has he fairly earned the £50 he has pocketed during the past year, taken from the coffers of the Institution, which comes between the wind and his nobility ? It is a sneaking and dastardly trick of a public journalist to ignore a local institute, to wait till he fancies it has incurred the odium of a party, and then make a merit of trying to write it clown. Municipalities are well enough in their way, and we shall be glad to welcome them, but in the meantime, we will do justice to the Local Board.