THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, May 13, 1843.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 62, 13 May 1843, Page 246

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Nelson, May 13, 1843.

Les journaux deviennent plus nlcetsaires a mesure que les hommes sont plus &gaux, et 1» individuolistne plus & craindre. Cc serait diminuer leur importance que dfe entire J[u' ils ne servent qu' & garantir la liberty : ils maintientnint a civilisation. Dit TocatJßVif i.E. De la Democratic en Amerique, tome 4, p. 220. Journals become more necessary as men become more equal, and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose that they serve only to secure liberty : they maintain-civilization. De TocaniviLLE. Of Democracy in America, vol. 4, p. 202. It is high time that there should be some further means for protecting the plots of cultivated ground within the limits of the town from inroads of cattle than are provided by the first clause of the Cattle Trespass Ordinance, which is now in force, and authorizes summary recovery of damages from owners of cattle found trespassing* upon land substantially fenced. TmV is not sufficient for the purpose when a place begins to be at all like a town. The second clause, which requires a proclamation to bring it into force, is as follows : — " If any cattle shall be found wandering at large in any street or public place within the limits of any town or village, which shalL. be proclaimed by his Excellency the Governor to come within the operation of this ordinance, the owner thereof shall forfeit and pay for every head of cattle so wandering any sum not exceeding five shillings, to be recovered in a summary way." And the third clause says that " cattle " shall include " horned or neat cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and swine." The trespasses at present committed in the town are sometimes^ certainly, more vexatious than injurious, but they are very frequently the latter also ; and all sufferers begin to feel the injustice of being liable to damage from the cattle of persons who are very probably not landowners' at all, who do not take any care to prevent them from straying into inclosures or cultivated ground, and who at the same time are not very likely to lower the charges for carriage of goods upon the ground that they are at no expense to provide feed, or, as too often happens, that the feed is provided by the labour of a poor man, whose crop, which promised to repay him for his early morning and late evening toil 7is wholly destroyed in the course of an hour. The illwill created by the nuisance too is very great. Cattle are frequently seriously injured ; and however respect for the law, and a necessity for supporting it, may oblige us to blame, yet this can create little surprise, and is open to many excuses far too plausible not to serve as a salve to the conscience when the appetite is exasperated by the sight of stalkless potato ridges and rows of stumps altogether cabbageless. We want the proclamation necessary to enforce the second clause of the ordinance, and the sooner we get it the better. It was a great oversight that a requisition was not prepared and signatures procured, in time to send to Auckland by the Government brig on her last visit. However, her stay was so short, and there was so much to be done in other matters, that, as nothing had been arranged previously to her arrival, no one had time to do what was necessary between the time of her arrival and that of her departure. The same omission should not take place again. Indeed, it were better that a requisition be prepared at once, and signatures be obtained, so that on the very first opportunity for Auckland it may be forwarded. The limits of the town of Nelson are so extended that it may be a question whether it would be desirable to have the clause apply to the whole of the land laid out in town sections at once, or whether in the requisition certain boundaries should be set forth as those which should include the town for the purposes of the proclamation. We do not pretend to determine what would be advisable ; but it does not appear to us at present necessary

to levy a fine upon cattle feeding on the land laid out at the further portion of the Waimea Road, and perhaps there are other parts of the town which it might be as well to exempt ; but we should like this to be considered of and be determined by the wish of the majority. We shall interest ourselves to have something of the sort prepared, and hope that the public will join to get so desirable a matter concluded with as little delay as possible.

In another column will be found a 6hQrt notice of the proceedings at the quarterly meeting of the committee and subscribers to the School established in this town on the plan of the schools of the British and Foreign School Society. We had promised to notice the proceedings in our last number, but are sorry to say, important as the subject is, it escaped our memory until it , was too late. We shall not attempt to show the benefits which must arise to an infant community like pur own from having the children of all classes instructed upon sound principles, because we believe the elbse connexion which exists between ignoraneV and vice is so well undertood that our remarks would be superfluous. It may, however, happen that those settlers who have arrived in the colony since the establishment of this, school have not been aware of its existence, and have omitted subscribing towards its support, not from . any unwillingness to aid such an institution, but from ignorance of its wants, as we can see no other reason why they should \% more backward than the earlier colonists, who, though small in numbers, subscribed the sum of £53 in two or three weeks. It may not be out of place, therefore, to briefly state the manner in which the institution .was established. Soon after the arrival of the first settlers the want of a proper school for the large number of children then without any means of receiving instruction was apparent, and on the 24th of May last a public meeting was held to consider the best means of remedying such an evil. A resolution was passed, which, as it embodies the principle on which the school is established, we will extract from the minutes : — " That the immediate design of the meeting iis the establishment of an elementary school, which shall be open to the children of all, without regard to the religious opinions of their parents, in which no sectarian views whatever shall be taught, and the Bible, when read, shall be read without note or comment." A public subscription was opened to defray the expense of building a school-room, and Captain Wakefield handsomely offered, on the part of the New Zealand Company, to give a piece of ground and the same amount in money as should be subscribed. The sum of £53 was soon collected, which, with the like amount from Captain Wakefield, enabled the committee to erect the present building. On the 30th of August, a meeting of the subscribers took place, for the purpose of appointing a master, and Mr. Moore, from his long previous experienoe in education, was considered the most fitting person for the situation. The school was immediately opened, with about 30 children, whose number has since increased to 38. Although the building and fittings-up have been paid for, there are still some things, however, which the committee deem necessary to make the the school complete even as far as it has already gone. There is also a small debt to liquidate. For these purposes funds ■ may be justly expected from the public, who are so much interested in the progress and support of such institutions. The original subscribers have, through their committee, agreed to an additional contribution on their part, which will help to meet the wants, but can hardly be expected to supply the means of in any material degree adding to the efficiency of the school. We trust that those more recently arrived will not allow so valuable assistants to the legislator and the police magistrate as the schoolroom and the schoolmaster to pass unencouraged, unaided by them. ■ It is usual to put these things in the light of a favour, and to ask for subscriptions to such establishments in the words and tones of a mendicant. We are equally unwilling to adopt such a course and to assume the im-

pertinence of dictating the performance of a duty. We shall trust to the good sense of all to convince them" of the vast present and eventual importance of maintaining educa,tional institutions, and to the good taste and independent feeling of those who have not already subscribed, to make them feel that their mite is due, whether from themselves or to their fellow-settlers.

The preparation of the flax is steadily if slowly progressing. There appears every reason to believe that we shall very shortly ' be in a position to make a regular export of the articte in a very superior state : that we shall do so eventually, no one, we believe, who has seen the specimens recently prepared can for a moment doubt ; the only question is how soon ? and this is a question which it is not in the power -of those who have been exercising their ingenuity in the invention and experimental application ,of a mode of preparation to reply to. Their work is now done, or very nearly so : .enabled to keep themselves going thus far, by the timely assistance and encouragement of " the Company's Agent, they have produced good evidence that the flax can be sent to the English market in a state very far superior to that in which the Russian hemp is imported there. From the specimens we have seen of rope made from it here, there ' can be no doubt of its flexibility and its strength. The important matter to be now decided is at what price can the first exports be made — at what cost can the preparation, pressing, and shipping, be completed — to what degree of pressure can it be subjected with our present means, and, when that is ascertained and the measurement of a ton weight known, what will be the freight in the first place of small quantities shipped to England by vessels nearly filled with other cargo, and what, in the second place, if a vessel is chartered solely for the purpose ? What is required is to get some quantity of this superior article sent to England, that it may become known there to possess the superiority we claim for it. It is not now to determine how much would be made by. the first speculations in the export of an article hitherto almost unknown at the place of import, and believed to be the source from which continued wealth must flow into the place of export ; this is not what it interests us to have decided. The thing ta be done is to prepare flax, ship and send the flax off, with the double object of providing a specimen, properly prepared, to be submitted to the judgments of merchants and manufacturers in England, and of providing ourselves with data which will enable us to know how much the actual cost will be, whether, as now, enhanced by existing disadvantages, or as lowered by the gradual though certain introduction of increased " facilities into every portion of the process, from the growing to the shipping. The question of the profit to be made by any present transaction in the flax is a matter of - very secondary importance to the merchants ' of this colony. Even if a moderate quantity were exported by them at a considerable loss, the result would be beneficial to them to a degree quite beyond all comparison with the original outlay or the deficiency in the return. The introduction of' the improved article to the English market, the ascertaining data on which to found calculations for future speculations, would alone repay them. In the course of the ensuing week, we believe *two of the persons who have been occupied for some time in experiments on the flax by different modes, and who have lately amalgamated' their plans into one, will b.e prepared to lay a statement before the public of Nelson on the subject. They will produce several hundred weight ready prepared and packed for shipping, and will lay the full particulars of cost before those who attend to hear them. Notice, we presume, will of course be given to merchants and others, so as to secure the attendance of all who are interested, and their judgment also. The thanks of the settlers are - justly due to Captain Wakefield, for the

patient perseverance with which he has kept the thing going, neither allowing it to drop for want of sufficient encouragement and support, nor with a mistaken liberality destroying the stimulus of personal interest.

By a reference to our advertising columns it will be seen that Mr.. Murray intends giving a second entertainment, on Monday next. As we have often heard the want of public amusements lamented, this attempt of Mr. Murray's to furnish us with the means of getting an occassional hearty laugh, should really be encouraged. We can assure such of our readers as did not patronize the " Saloon " on the evening of its opening (particularly if from the land o'cakes), that a couple of Mr. Mackean's stories will amply repay them for their attendance. We are promised on this occasion some good solo singing, and the attendance of respectable musicians. The lovers of the drama are also to have the treat of once more witnessing a scene of Shakspeare — the tent scene from Richard ~IIL, having been selected for the purpose. As we once had the satisfaction of enjoying Kean's performance of Richard, we feel anxious to see our enterprising manager in the same character, in order that we may decide which is the " bigger " man of the two.

I The pier erected by Mr. Otterson on ' Auckland Point will be completed in a couple of days.; and we- congratulate our

merchants on the facility which it will afford , them in landing goods near the town in all tides. Large barges will be able to make two trips in neap and three in spring tides from vessels lying in the middle of the harbour, while small coasters will be able to lie alongside and discharge. A channel to it has been cleared and marked out, so as to make the access to it as easy as possible.

On Tuesday last the cattle imported from • Port Phillip in the Essex, were offered for sale by auction. All the working bullocks Tsold at an average price of £38 a pair. The ' heifers fetched £8 1 Os. each. None of the steers sold. We believe the gentleman who chartered the vessel intends remaining here some little time with such as are unsold ; , and we have no doubt, with the abundance i of pasturage in the neighbourhood, that the rapid improvement of the condition of the cattle will well repay him for doing so.

We have been requested to state that the first meeting of the committee of the Agricultural and Horticultural Association will 1 take place at the Literary Institution on Wednesday next, at twelve o'clock. The gentlemen named as the committee at the general meeting were — Captain England, Captain Wakefield, Messrs. H. A. Thompson, M'Donald, Tuckett, Richardson, Cautley, Redwood, Tytler, Cullen, Duppa, Tod, Elliott, Kerr, Seymour, and T. Thompson.

Seasonable Remark. — It argues a narrow o corrupt nature to lose the general and lasting consequences of rare and virtuous energy, in the brief accidents which accompanied its first movements, to set lightly by the emancipation of the human reason from a legion of devils, in our complaints and lamentations over the loss of a herd of I swine. — Coleridge. BOROUGHMONGER THE FIRST. — " The first I instance that occurs," says Blackstone, "of elec- | tion bribery, was so early as the thirteenth year of ' Elizabeth's reign, when one "Thomas Longe (being a simple raaa, and of small capacity to serve in .parliament) acknowledged that he had given the returning officer and others of the borough for which he was chosen, four pounds, to be returned member, and was for that premium elected ! ! ! " In a company they were speaking about the metempsychosis; somebody, who thought of giving a good joke, said, that he remembered having been the golden calf. " You have lost but the gilding," replied a lady wittily enough. Greediness. — An able man will arrange his I interests and conduct each in its proper order. Our greediness often hurts us, by making us proi secute so many things at once; by too earnestlydesiring the 'less considerable, we lose the more important.— iJocAe/bwcawtf. A Charge against Swift. — I found on one occasion, in the library of the Cura de Zipaquira, a Spanish edition of Gulliver's Travels. An Aviso at Lector is prefixed, ia which the Catholic reader is reminded that the work was written by a : heretic Dean, which, the editor gravely observes, ! , accounts lor the many glaring and wilful deviations from truth to be found in thtne travels. — Venezuela.

Meteorological Table for the Week ending Friday, May 12.