THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1354, 30 November 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1872.

The Rip Van Winkle of New Zealand is awaking. There are | signs of his long sleep ceasing. Ho has for years been away among the mountains of dream-land, stretched at his length in some situation suitable to his dull sensibilities— Sleepy Hollow or Bedstead Gully. His hair has whitened, his limbs have stiffened, his clothing, from his shoulders to his wellshrunk shank, hangs loosely and in rags, and alongside him lies his fire-lock long unused and no longer usable. In his derelict and castaway condition he has lain for years while generations of others have, at no distance from him, grown up, worked, and prospered. These have wondered where he was, or why he was not ; and now he has come back to tell them that, still in the flesh, he has been dead only in spirit. He has hitherto had the capacity or the desire to enjoy only a little more sleep and a little more slumber, but at last light has ponetrated his eyelids and repentance his heart, and, if it is not all too late, he would now seek his frau and his good dog Schneider. Strange stories have been told of him by j his friends and by his enemies, but the story he has himself to tell is more reliable, as it is also more pathetic and pitiable. Need we say that, in New Zealand Nelson typifies what Rip Van Winkle was among the Catskill Mountains? If, in the words of Mr Verdant 1 Green, "anyone donbts our word," lei^ him read the description given in the Nelson Mail, and judge the closeness of j the parallel. Here is the chapter of revelations which suggests it, as published in the Mail of Tuesday last : — "There is at the present moment a very nneasy feeling prevailing throughout the town of Nelson and the surrounding districts with regard to the future of the Province and the welfare of those resident in it; For every step forward that the other, provinces are taking, Nelson is slipping two backwards. Our drearylooking streets, the number of. empty houses, and the almost entire cessation of building operations have a dismal signification that cannot be viewed with indifference by those who have made their homes in this part of the Colony, and who look forward with feelings of alarm to the future that is in. store for the younger members of the community who are growing up around them. And yet,

while it is admitted on every side, as indeed must be the case with all who are not wilfully blind to what is going on, that the province has commenced the easy descent to ruin and bankruptcy, no effort i 3 made either by those in authority or by the people themselves to find a remedy for the present depressing state of affairs. There are some bodily diseases of which the moat dangeroua symptoms aro the apathy and entire prostration displayed by the patients aflHcted by them ; there is a complete indifference to all that is taking place, a looking for death as a release from present suffering, and it would really seem that with such a disease Nelson, as a community, ia afilicted. We are all of us conscious of our state ; in reply to the question, 'How d'ye do'?' wo languidly wheeze out the reply, « Thank you, sinking rapidly ; there is no more ease, no more comfort for us on this side of the grave ;' but, at the same time, not one among us really believes that this melancholy prediction will actually be fulfilled ; not one of us but is full of faith that a brighter and more healthy state of things ia attainable if we will only bestir ourselves and ' put forth our energies to avert the political demise that threatens us. Sure it is high time that we made some onward movement, that we exhibited if it were only a natural feeling of pride and vexation at finding ourselves the laughing stock of the Colony. We know full well that the interior of the Province contains hundreds, yes, thousands of acres of good agricultural land, we are quite {iware that far away in what is now a desert are auriferous reefs of a richness unsurpassed by any in the Colony, and we have every reason to believe that by placing the town in communication with these parts prosperity will be secured to both. On the one side is a fine country abounding in mineral wealth, and presenting ample scope for the enterprising, hard working agriculturist ; on the other a town languishing, sinking into the most ridiculous insignificance, because it will not stretch out its hand to grasp the riches that Providence has placed within its reach. Still, session after session of the Assembly and Provincial Council passes away and Nelson gradually becomes poorer, year after year flits by and nothing is done. But adversity has its uses, and at last it is, we really hope, forcing itself upon the attention of the public that they must move in the matter. Nothing has been done by the Government to arrest our downward progress, and it is for them now to say that something shall be done." Emanating from any other place than Nelson this would be denounced as libel, but coming from Nelson itself, and through the columns of the Mail, we are entitled to accept it as the " plain, nnvarnish'd truth." Of the feeble moral with which our contemporary, in the remainder of the article, completes his faithful sketch, we shall say more anon.