WEEKLY WHISPERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 235, 19 November 1904, Page 2

WEEKLY WHISPERS.

// there's a hole in a'yoiir coats I redt y<l, tent V it. ... A chiel's amang ye talin notes, And, faith, he'll prent %t. Nelson gas is simply horrible just no w If one attempts to place a piece oi ! iron *r a small kettle over an ordinary jet— not a cooking jet— he will find the soot forming as thickly as if he were using coal or wood. Naphthalene bloofes the pipes more quickly tlian orer, and the coke simply refuses t> burn. What's the mattor ? Cheap coal ?— cheap and more or less nasty and unsuitable for the purposes intended ? • * » * Is Captain Edivn or Mr. Clement Wragge responsible for the recent assortment of unseasonable weather the colony, including Nelson, has been having ? As a rule we here dodge Captain Edwin very well. A strong calm prevails in Nelson while Captain Edwin's cyclones rage elsewhere, and we can generally afford to regard his forecasts with more oi loss equanimity. But we have not beon able to dodge Clement Wragge. Tt will be remembered that in .his recent lecture, since put into pamphlet | orm, he told us thnt there would bo weather of sorts in New Zealand this spring and summer— and the sort 3 are coining to rights or wrongs. It is distinctly discomposing to have to grope around Sot extra blankets at 1 o'clock on a morning of the middle of November — the mo^th of roses— and a sudden necessity to return to winter clothing must have been responsible for a large number of fresh colds. «K 1 * As to the " sweet calm " of Nelson I weather, it has departed for the time being. We are getting quite accustomed to an almost daily raging south-wester, and soon, it' those conditions continue, a Nelson man may be known abroad by the sign indicating a Wellingtonian — a tendency to unconsciously seize hold of the brim oi the Jiat on approaching & street corner, * # ♦ • The appended •' takes the cake " : It ib stated that a defendant under committal for trial at the next session of the Supreme Court in Nelson has been summoned to serve on the common jury panel called for the assizes at Nelson. L'hip, if true, is worse than summoning dead men and fining thorn for nonattendance. If called, will he be permitted to sit on hi 3 own case, or will he be challenged by the Ciown 'i The situation is certainly Gilbertian. ♦ * * * A good story was told by the Row ,J. .1. Hal ley, before the Victorian Congregational Union. The reverend gentleman was detailing his experiences in connection with mission work in. the bush. On one. occasion, he said, be met a traveller whose, friend had recently died. On being' informed of the fact, of which he was previously unaware, the tr a veller expressed a wish to see where his comrade was buried. He was accordingly led to tingrave by Mr Ilalley, who waited in sympathetic silence for some expression of emotion. For some minut.es the traveller was dumb, but at last from the fullness of ho artthe mouth spoke. "Ah, Jim," came the regretful words, ■•you was the fairest drinker in the Murrumbidgw." Having thus unbosomed himself, the dead man's mate, evidently regarding further eulogy as superfluous, rode silently away. *. * * * A rosi-dent of the city has received by the last mail a letter from a friend, which says :— T was amused at one of my friend's references to Mr Seddon." He said :— •'The papers have been rather down on Seddon's loan transactions, and one facetiously remarked, when the Premier quoted New Zealand as Clod's own country in his Budget Speech, that it was really magnanimous of him to admit that the prosperity of the country was attributable to -one other beside himself." * * * * The following is from an English paper :1b " Mr Seddon's Inspiration. — — Mr Seddon makes a practice of winding up his Budget speeches with a quotation from a Xew Zealand poet. This love for the poetic has had the effect of putting the Xew Zealand poets on the track of Mr Seddon himself, and one of these has perpetrated some descriptive lines which ought not to be withheld from the British public. As will be seen,, their immediate reference is to Mr Soddon's proposal for the creation of a Hig>h (!ommissi'onership of New Zealand in London, and his own probable occupation of the position when created. The lines deal with eminent personages in a somewhat free and easy style ; but that is only the colonial way. We give a few extracts : — There's a voice that's calling Richard from across t-ho -vasty deep. He hoars it in his waking hours, he hr-ars it when asleep ; And it fills his soul with visions. resplendent as the. sky Nhe.n in the west the setting sun sinks slowly down to die ; For he sees himself thn centre of Kitk la nd's proudest throng. Bedecked with Royal favours and the theme of laureate's song- ; Ho sees the old nobility rise in the 1 louse of .Peers A i Ml -Kivi't. his <*n trance with, vlv King with thrice-repeated chivrs; He hears with wild and rapt'rous joy the herald okl proclaim The list of noble titles which 'tis now his right to claim ; And as he rises to address the greatest in the land He foels that theirs is to obey while while his is to command. They listen to his ringing tones, they watch his stately mien, They in ark his regal poise of head, his grey eyes flashing keen ; With bated hroath they hang- upon the words Urn, giowin,<r fall, And marvel much 'to hear such speech within their ancient hall. The King-, entranced and wonder- ... struck, turns to an aged peer, "And by my faith, good Earl Yieux," he whispers in his oar, Didst ev-e,r in thy wildest dreams of England's future bliss Conceive within thy fertile brain, so strange a scene as this ?" But now the orator has ce-asod, his stream of words has stopped, And all the floor is littered with the H's he has dropped. Then, is a moment's silence, then. as moved by one accord. A ring-ing shout of ioud applaus.o. comes from each noble lord ; They snatch their je\v<-ll.;cl coronets and fling them in the aii-. And in their frenzied eestacy their orm. 'nod robes ''.hoy loar. And now beyond its pprtals. beits oakon door, Ts heard, like jlistant thunder, a doe.p and muffled roar. All England here has gathered, in a vast tumultuous throng-, And they greet the bold Xew Zi>alander with cheers both loud and ... long-— With cheers that gather volume as they rush and mount on nigh I'ntil the clouds above them are sundered in the sky. And Lomlon'B massive piles and domes all tremble where they stand, And the echo of that mighty roar resounds througnout the land ; It was ua'"tcd \>y \}- c iroe-/.-\ to the isles beyon.J i.h." 1 From t.he snows «>f Manitoba to iho groves of fat 1 l\jj ; And the meteor flag 1 of England where'er it flew on high. " Felt Its silken folds unfurled us th. 1 echo hurried hy * * # * -a The sun put on new splendour, an-1 the moon put on now grace And the echo still is travelling through the boundless realms 1 of space. MOFUSSILITE. '