The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 61, 14 March 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1867.

A meeting is called by the Provincial Secretary for to-morrow evening, to make arrangements to. give the Governor a suitable reception on his arrival in Nelson on the 26th instant. The principal business of the meeting will be, we apprehend, to decide what kiud of reception shall be given his Excellency," and the part that various public bodies in the town shall take in the proceedings of the day. The time has been, in the olden days of the colony, when the Governor came here almost without an attendant, and walked about as a private gentleman, there being nobody to receive him at the wharf but a policemau and Mr. B. Crisp with his inevitable bullock-dray. Those were the primitive times of the colony, when the early settlers were too much engrossed with the effort lo make both ends meet, to have time or inclination for state ceremony. Times have changed, however, since then ; the community has grown in numbers and wealth, aud with these have come the adjuncts of education and refinement, which will not allow people to receive the Queen's representative Avithout some mark of respect. It is hardly likely that Nelson will be less respectful in its reception of his Excellency than the towns have been in the West and South, through which he has lately passed ; aud it will not do to give Sir G. Grey an opportunity for saying that the present occupants of the soil which he visited ja utter solitariness, on former occasions, are less loyal or patriotic, or less influenced by an eulightened selfregard, than the communities which have ouly recently grown into shape and which have shown him the utmost cordiality. No doubt the Governor will be agreeably surprised t6 witness the progress this community has made in civilisation and refinement; and the establishment of the entente cordiale between him and the inhabitants ou the jjoccasion of his expected visit, cannot prove disadvantageous in our future relations with the Government. It will cause a slight loss of time to somo persons, no doubt, to take part iu the proceedings that may be decided on, but the inconvenience will be cheerfully borne in consideration of the interest Avhich hinges on the political event they are called to notice. We presume all these matters will be fully discussed to-morrow evening; and that the people of Nelson will resolve to keep pace with their contemporaries in the adjoining provinces, iu all that relates to the reception of the representative of Majesty in a suitable and hearty English mauher.