THE WEEK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 141, 14 June 1879, Page 2

THE WEE K.

This crooked, tortuoug, puzzling Maori difficulty, which is causing so much trouble and anxiety, besides wear aDd tear of the brain power of those whose duty it is to meet it, seems likely now, if we are to believe a statement recently made, to enter upon a new phase, and to assume the form of a gigantic action at law. Mr Te Whiti, we are told, is acting under legal advice in ploughing other people's lauds without their consent, and we may expect aoon to see the newspapers crowded with reports of the celebrated trial .Regina v. Te Whiti for trespass, the Attorney General and a little crowd of lesser lights for the plaintiff, and Mr Higginbotham, the great Victorian lawyer, with r-'ni any number of smaller fry, for the defendant. What a grand opportunity this would give to our lawyers to comfortably feather their nests, but alas! that there is nofc one of them who knows how to make out his 'bill of costs after doing the work and earning his money. It is, indeed, to be regretted that thafc portion of their education to which one would have supposed so much attention would assuredly have been paid was neglected wheu they were studying for tbe bar, bufc so it is, and their only hope of making as much as they ought to if this great State trial should come off will be to ask Mr Higginbotham to give them a few lessons. I daresay he knows all aboufc it. But ifc is not everybody who believes that this land seizing and ploughing business is going to end in a civil action. A very old colonist, wbo was talking to me aboufc the matter, says he can see through ifc all Te Whiti, he thinks, is wily, but Sir George Grey is wilier, and he is willing to bet a trifle that by some stratagem, as cleverly conceived and carried out as that by wbich Sir George Grey the Governor seized old Rauperaha in the early days of the colony, Sir George the Premier will haye nabbed the chief who is cow causing so much uneasiness, before the next session of Parliament opens. It's not at all a bad idea of my old frieud's if it can only be carried into execution, and it would certainly turn a good many votes which under existing circumstances, will most assuredly be recorded against the Government on their Native policy, ;f the Premier could come down to the House on the flrst day of its meeting and with a triumphant smile inform them thafc the orophesying old humbug was safe in the lock up. Before quitting this subject I wish to place on record my admiration of the ready-witted-ness of a tradesman resident in the' North Island wbo deals in such articles as ploughs. Whatever may be the outcome of thiaaudden fit of industry that has seized the Maoris, he intends if he can to make a few pounds out of it, and so advertises that he has on hand a number of double furrow ploughs with the aid of which they could get over much more ground in the day thau with those at present in use. And apart from tho enterprise displayed by this tradesman, there is yet another and still more interesting feature in the enticing picture he sketches out of the larger quantity of land the natives might acquire by the act of ploughing if they adopted his recommendation and used his wares. It would be a striking scene to witness alofc of half-naked savages asserting their right to certain lands by using one o£ tho most useful inventions in the way of agricultural implements thafc has been made in the civilised countries of the world. The Zulu uses his assegai, the Eed Indian his scalping knife, but the Maori, henceforth, is to achieve his conquests with double furrow ploughs, Everybody says New Zealand is a wonderful country, and really I am beginning to believe that everybody is right. Can't we get up a meeting of the unemployed in Nelson as others are doing elsewhere? I suggest tbis because from reading the papers and telegrams on this subject I am inclined to believe that there is something more in the cry of the want of employment than at first meets the eye, or rather the ear. -first we hear of the want of work, then of a certain amount of distress that is consequent upon it, aud then comes the suggestion from some rown or County Council that in order to find employment for those who are idle the Government should at once commence certain public worka that have been previously spoken abont or authorised. We have txm aU softs of means and used every

kind of pressure that we could think of td induce Mr Macandrew to carry into effect the instructions of the Parliament that the extension of the trunk line of railway beyond Bell Grove should be commenced during the current financial year, but all this has been of no avail. Suppose that we wero now to follow the lead set by some of our more knowing neighbors, get up a howl about the unemployed, acd persuade the Mayor to send a telegram to Wellington informing the Government that the only possib'e way to alleviate the distress and allay the discoid tent is to set gaugs of mcd to work on the railway. I rather like the idea, and if it should ever be carried out successfully here, 1 shall expect a testimonial from those who nave benefitted by my suggestion. • w ey . are S ettiD £ awfully particular over in Wellington about the words and expressions they make use of, and the writers of locals are careful in ths extreme not to offend the delicate sensibilities of their readers. Just oue instance of this : One of the butchers killed a pig, which, although a very young pig, weighed a whole lot of pounds. The reporter of one of the papers thought this pig was a pig of sufficient weight to justify its being brought prominently before the public, but to taik to the Wellington people about a j>ig would be au act of vulgarity that he would never be guilty of, no never, not even ?"! he had to leave that pig in privacy. But the pig haunted him, aud he couldn't get it out of his head, so he sat down and cudgelled his brains for some graceful synonym that would render the use ofthe objectionable word pig unnecessary. A.t last a happy thought struck him, aud piggy was trotted out under another name. This was how he got over the difficulty: — "A very fine specimen of early porcine development was on view to-day at," &c. In a City of such refinement as Wellington, that reporter ought to be worth his weight iv gold, even though he, iv one scale, were able to make that " fine specimen of early porcine development," in the other, kick the beam. I have, I think, referred to the barbarous custom of "viewing the body" afc our coroner's inquests sufficiently ofteu to let my readers know my views on the subject, so I am not going to say anything more about ifc just now, but perhaps it may interest some to know thafc in America they carry this farce quite as far, if not farther, than we do here. People are so accustomed to reading humorous extracts frora Yankee papers that there are many, I believe, who really think that nothing seriously meant ever appears in thera, but the following, I can assure them, is an ordinary item of news, telegraphed to the San Francisco Post by its Virginia correspondent .—"Alfred Patterson, an old and valuable miner, by a misstep was thrown 1500 feef^jtawn the North Consolidated Virginia shaf fc;~at four o'clock this morning, and was literary dashed to pieces. His remains were brought up in a blanket, and the undertaker is trying to sew enough together for the; coroner to hold an inquest upon. Ile leaves a wife and six children." T?rom my own personal experiences I could relate some queer tales of the body-viewing business at New Zealand inquests, but I can't beat this, and so shall nofc attempt it, F.