THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 130, 3 June 1871, Page 2

THE WEEK.

Did any of my readers ever attend a -market town in the old country on a Fair day ? No doubt many of them have, and, as surely, have they stopped in their rambles through ihe crowded thoroughfares to watch the most popular of all the arnusemeuts to be eDJoyed on such a day — the Merry-go-round. Probably, if they happened to be in a speculative mood, they may have carefully taken stock of the various candidates who came forward and tendered the half-penny that was to entitle them to participate in the giddy ride, and have endeavoured to form an opinion, based upon the colors of the steedta they selected upon which to be whirled round, of the characters of the numerous amateur jockeys. The fast young countryman who wus regardless of consequences, was sure to select the bright scarlet aieed with the. narrow back and exceedingly diminutive saddle ; those who were a degree more cautious would choose the bay horse that was provided with the more secure-looking seat, while the more nervous and bashful could only be persuaded to mount the sombre grey, or dun-colored representative of that particular branchof the animal kingdom. All being mounted, the proprietor of the wooden team commences to turu the haudle, and, as the revolutions become more and more rapid, each rider and his horse gradually loses his own individuality, and nothing is to be seen but one confused mass of whirling atoms, ia which, as the pace gradually increases, the gaudier colors alone are.jfcisible, and, although there should be only one or two scarlet horses out of the dozen that are flying round, that particular color seems to predominate and to lend its hues to all the rest. I daresay that I shall be charged with making use of a very far-fetched illustration when I say that the proceedings of the Provincial Council during the late session have called to my mind such a scene as that I have described above, but such is the case, and I will proceed to show wherein lies the resemblance. In our Council we have always had one or two fast, go-ahead members who cared not how much the province became iuvolved, so long as there was plenty of money in circulation for the time being, and who, consequently-, had no scruples about rushing into debt to any amount. These, I think, are fairly represented by the bright scarlet. We alao had moderately cautious men who,^,without being positively averse to^forrowing money, liked to see their way clearly before them prior to burdening the revenue with a heavy amouut of interest. Here we have the riders of the Jess showy bay horses. Again, there were the frightened and timid riders of the dull colored steeds, who, on no account whatever, would allow one penny to be obtained upon credit. But that arch enchanter, Julius Yogel, has waved his magic wand over them; he has taken a turn at the handle, and lo ! the prudent, debt-abhorring Provincial Council of Nelson has become saturated with the spirit of speculation;' the fast color predominates, and its gaudy brilliancy has proved so dazzling as to render all the more sober hues absolutely •invisible; all the grave doubts, all the sombre predictions of the future that, it was at one time believed, must await a people steeped to their necks in debt have vanished, and our representatives, with all the zeal of new converts, are not to be satisfied with any half measures, but have boldly stated their willingness to raise a loan or loaus amounting in all to Three Hundred Thousand Pounds ! Nonsenaa ! is the exclamation that I have no doubt will issue from the lips of many who have not carefully considered the purport of what has been done within the last two or three weeks — and I dare say there are many sueh — but, in order to prove my assertion, I will set them a little sum in simple addition which they can work out at their leisure. The figures, I may state, are only approximates, but they are, at least, within the mark : — Westport and Mount Rochfort Railway £100,000 Nelson and Foxhill do 75,000 Cobden and Bruhner do. 30,000 Water Supply for Goldfieldi 75,000 The total of these suras having been ascertained, the, amount for which the Province will be liable, if the wishes of the Council are carried linto effect, will be known, and then if £30,000. be added to this for gas and water works, for which amount, however, the town rates are to be offered as security, it will be seen that £300,000 is not an exaggerated statement of 'our ' proposed debt. I am not saying that our Councillors are doing wrong in " going in " for all this money. If the colony is to rush into debt, by all means let us have our share so, that it be spent on works of a useful nature, but suppose such a thing .had been proposed in the; days of Mr. Kobinson or Mr. Saunders, what would those who now support, ori at all events do not .oppose, such propositions have said ? During the discussion of the Estimates,

we had a very fierce debate upon the question of a rise of £15 iv a constable's salary- when the Mount Rochfort railway was proposed — well, I refer my readers to the newspaper reports of what took place — they simply say, after giving the resolution, " Agreed to." And that really was all that occurred. Was there a slight touch of sarcasm in the opening paragraph of the Superintendent's prorogation speech, wherein he said : — " I fiongralulute you upon the large amount of important business which you have fiansacted in a session of less than ordinary length" ? I think there must have been. The English mail via San Fruneiseo has again arrived with commendable punctuality, thus showing that the American boats are immeasurably superior to those with which the line was opened. At the same time, while fully allowing the eclat that belongs to New Zealand forinauguratinj; such a line, I cannot but repeat the question, are we in a position to pay for it ? Would not all our requirements have been satisfied if we had allowed the boats to run to Australia via the Fijis where a branch steamer could have met the mail boat, thus doing all our work for ahoufc one-fifth of the subsidy that we now pay ? We are gradually getting — to use a homely expression — too big for our hoots. What shall we do when we have altogether outgrown them and have not the wherewithal to supply ourselves with new ones ? The news by the mail is of the same revolting nature as that conveyed to us last rronth. The Parisians, unable to quietly settle down after the excitement of war, are, now that the Prussians have left off thrashing them, busily engaged in that interesting occupation which at one time was supposed to be the special prerogative of those pugnacious animals, the "Kilkenny Cats ". One would have thought that the French had, within the kst few months, had a surfeit of battle, murder, aud sudden death, but their appetite for all the honors consequent upon war appears to be absolutely unappeasable. Perhaps when the Prussiaus make a forcible entry into the city, as it is reported they were to do on the 9th of May, the Parisians may be impressed with the necessity of no longer making such an exhibition of themselves before a wondering world. The report that, the fine steamer the Queen of the Thames has been wrecked has created a great sensation. She was one of the finest boats ever built, and her trip to Australia, the first she ever made, was one of the fastest on record. It is earnestly to be hoped that th^report may prove unfounded. There JjßpE general impression that she was a spiter ship to the ill-fated London, but, this I believe i^ a mistake. Iv the six or eight years that elapsed between the building of the London and the Queen of the Thames, vast improvements have been made in naval architecture, and we may be quite sure that all such improvements were to be in the latter ship. fSome little curiosity has, within the last day or two, beeu excited by the 'appearance of survey pegs and flags in St. Vincent-street. These, be it known,, are the first indications of the Nelson and Foxhill railway, which it is proposed to take up Toi Toi Valley and through the hill, in a tunnel about half a mile in length, to the flat below Mr. Stafford's farm at Stoke. There are some people who think that it would be more advantageous, aud tend more largely to opening up the country if the railway, which is only a portion of the line that it is proposed to take through to Cobden, were to commence at the point where the existiug road terminates, and push on fiom thence into the wilder and more inaccessible part of the country, and I am not quite sure that they are not right. The Agricultural Show recently held at Richmond, has had tho effect of proving to our farmers that their cattle are not what they should be, at least I presume that such is the case from the fact that two Durham bulls bred >y Mr.* Nairn of Hawke's Buy, are expected} to arrive by the Taranaki to-morrow .or Monday, one being consigned to Mr. Canniug of Richmond, and the other to Mr. Nairn of Wakefield, It is to be hoped that the result of such an importation may be perceptible in the course of a few years, as, at present, there is plenty of room for improvement in this direction. There are certain matters connected with farming that are a puzzle to me. To one or two of these I have referred on previous occasions, and now I am afforded fresh food for thought aud speculation. On Thursday last, I met a farmer who had brought an excellent sample of barley into town for which he was unable to find a purchaser at anything like a remunerative price. Op the same evening, in looking over the shipping intelligence, I read that between 300 and 400 bags of this particular kind of grain had been imported from the Wairau by our Nelson brewers. Once more, I ana tempted to ask, How is this? F. For remainder of news see fourth page.

Christianity (says Novalis) is the root of all democracy, the highest fact in the rights of man. A Parallel. — Could we conceive such a man as Napoleon 111. susceptible of remorse, we should imagine him reflecting like the tyrant Eichard the Third : — " My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain. Perjury, perjury, in the highest degree; Throng to the bar, crying all, guilty ! guilty ? " A Complication of Disasters. — The most bizarre and horrible railway accident we ever remember to have heard of is reported by cable from the Hudson River. A train laden with passengers was going along quite comfortably, when (February 6) it passed a train laden with barrels of petroleum which had exploded. The passenger train caught fire, and rushing on, set fire to a bridge. We presume the train was stopped, for the bridge broke down, thirty persons were burned or drowned, and " many more," say 120 injured. Explosion, fire, and drowning are not often united in that way, and our wonder is that the neighbors did not take the train for an enemy, and fire into it, -vhile the firemen mistook it for a fire, and poured in asphyxiating vapour. If an earthquake had then swallowed traiD, passengers, neighbors, firemen, and the river, the paragraph would have been complete, and the American papers, if very short of material, might have quoted it. Woman's rights have surely reached their climax amoDgst our American cousins. Here is a marriage case at Rowena, U.S., which, if not sublime, is decidedly ridiculous : — " Walter Pierce, the bridegroom, drew up a paper in which he declared his willingness to accord to the woman whom he had selected as his bride, ' equal rights, socially, religiously, and politically, ' with himself. This being read, the lady responded, *I take Walter Pierce, whom I intelligently, religiously, and spiritually love, to be my companion through life, and I agree not to usurp over him, or transcend him in any particular. ' Then standing before the Mayor they said, 'By this voluntary and^premeditated act, in your presence, we declare ourselves religiously, philosophically, and scientifically married. ' Apparently convinced that Mr. Pierce would not be 'transcended,' the Mayor declared the marriage valid. " Japan. — The Japan papers report that country as being in a very unsettled state. The feudal nobility have, it appears, by their arbitrary and tyrannical conduct been the occasion of several disturbances. At Sinshiu we read that the central Government wanted to recall a quantity of local paper money, but did not wish to pay any equivalent to the holders. This seemed to the people to be at variance with correct commercial principles, and they resisted. The Government captured the ringleader of the outbreak and beheaded him, on which the revolt, instead of being pacified, as it should have been according to all advanced constitutional systems, became more violent. The insurgents burned the town, reduced the Prince's castle, and crucified the Prince's subordinate officers. The Prince escaped, as princes usually do on such occasions. Troops were sent against the rebels, but were beaten, and it seems that the Mikado has no more to send. In another district, that of Bungo, a rising has also taken place against the authorities, and here also it is attributed to unfair exactions. A great assembly of the Daimaios is summoned to meet at Yeddo to discuss the measures to be taken. A New Motive Power. — If we mistake nofc, we are in the dawn of a new and economic motive power. A few days ago we visited the works of Mr. H. M. Payne, of Newark, N.Y., where a powerful magnetic saw mill was at work. This rapid and effective action, has been watched nine consecutive hours by investigating parties, without any perceptible decline of power, and with a consumption of less than half a pound of zinc — a cost of less than half a cent, au hour. The power developed was rated at two-horse, and can be maintained for twenty-four hours without intermission at a maximum cost of ten cents. We may yet see the Atlantic crossed by huge vessels, propelled without an ounce of coal, by a power, the initiative of which the captain may place beside his writing desk in his cabin, which a child can apply, and the littlest finger may stop. The begrimed furnace-man may then come out from these lower halls, and walk the deck as clean as the passenger, and the blazing fires be put out. And it may be in the mysterious workings of the Almighty that those electric forces, which are on every hand developing themselves as the life of the world, quickening its pulses from pole to pole, the cause of growth, and the cardinal element of a power the limit of which is yet unknown, may be ordained to remove from man part of the curse of toil, unbending the laborer's back, and making him to stand erect as at the first. —New York Telegraph Journal.

Love in a Cottage ! — A young lady who has beeu married six months says it is all nonsense to talk about love iv a cottage. The little rascal always runs away when there is no bread and butter on the table. There is more love in a full flour-barrel thau in all the roses aud poses and woodbines that ever grew. , In Edinburgh, it seems, a new musical instrument is now being exhibited. It is described in the English Mechauic as a keyed instrument of six octaves, resembling a harmonium in general form but very different.. in mechanism. The sounds are produced by the friction of 'woodeu hammers agaiust a cylinder of wood, set in motion by the feet. The tones, produced are said to be very sweet and w&uderfully varied. "One can sometimes hardly believe that they are not those of wind instruments." " Public Opinion !" — In view of the unaccountable "right-about-face" which English sentiment has executed oif the subject of the war-transferring sympathy from the nation attacked simply because it was unsuccessful, and giving it to the aggressor purely because he was deservedly thrashed, it is re-assuring to find a statesman of the standing of the SolicitorGeneral (Sir D. T. Coleridge) having the courage and honesty to stand up fcr Germany. He pointed out the historical fact that French " glory " had been the scourge of Europe for ages, and that it was for the interest of the world that it should be dashed to pieces. He re-called attention lo the unprovoked origin of this war by France: and in reference to the fears expressed that Germany might take the place of France as a military scourge, he decliireTl that he feared nothing of the sort, that he had faith in German history and character, aud that the world would experience unspeakable relief in having at the head of Europe a pacific instead of a restless and aggressive nation. — Stroud Journal. A Madras paper is responsible for the following: — "It has always been a reproach to the English that they have introduced, drunkenness into India. The demoralisation, however, has hitherto been confined to the human species : it has now extended to the monkeys. The Madras Municipality, afflicted by the accumulation of these creatures, had some intoxicating material cunningly distributed in the monkeys' way, and large numbers of them were found in the village in a disgraceful state of intoxication, almost singing, 'We won't go home till morning.' The permissive principle is at once to be put in force. " ' Bugfeldt is exceedingly stout. Onee s at Long Branch, he went in to bathe. There was no surf worth speaking of, and so Bugfeldt paddled for a considerable distance. He was swimming back leisurely, when his excessive stomach grated on the bottom. He concluded to wade; but what was his astonishment, upon assuming a vertical position, to find that the water was over his head ! That was the first intimation Bugfeldt had that he was broader than he was long. An eccentric minister in a large parish had seventeen couples to marry at once in a grand common service at church. In the course of the weddings he asked one of the men to pledge himself to the wrong woman. The man naturally protested, and was told, " Hold your tongue; I will marry you all, now and here — you can sort yourselves going home ! " — Methodist Record.