Tuesday, April 22.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 171, 14 June 1845, Page 60

Tuesday, April 22.

The Council having finished its labours, the Governor closed the session with the following speech : — " Gentlemen — I am now enabled to adjourn this fifth session of the Legislative Council, and to relieve you for some time from such tedious and irksome duties as those which you have so cheerfully and regularly executed. " I am fully sensible of the sacrifices that the non-official members have made in giving up their time to public affairs, and exposing themselves to personal obloquy — the certain consequence of political exertion in whatever manner.

" It must be satisfactory to the Council to reflect that, by their zealous endeavours, very great reductions have been effected in the current expenditure; and that the estimate for 1845-6 is £10,000 (or one-fourth) less than that for 1844-5 ; although the estimate for that year was £20,000 less than that for 1843.

" The estimated expenditure for this year is only £26,000, notwithstanding that the several distinct settlements, so distant from each other, cause so much expense on account of their separate establishments.

" In proposing that we should revert to the system of raising a revenue by means of duties of Customs, I felt extreme reluctance ; but there was no choice. Six months' trial has shown that a revenue, nearly sufficient for the most economical expenditure on the public account, could not, under the peculiar circumstances of this colony, be raised by direct taxation. " To have continued the trial longer would have made the difficulties under which we are labouring still greater. Having failed to prevent insurrection by removing the restrictions of Customs regulations, the chief motive for their abolition ceased ; and, as the less of two evils, their re-establishment became imperative. " At the commencement of this session, I had no anticipation of such a disaster as that which befel Kororarika. I considered that place sufficiently defended ; and I looked cheerfully at the prospects elsewhere. But the fall of Kororarika has taught all a lesson ; and I trust that improvement will be the consequence, after a season of bitterness and inevitable warfare.

" British authority must be vindicated, but with justice and mercy."

Conceit. — There are none so empty as those who are full of themselves.

Etiquette. — A Yankee traveller says that " Western people go to the death on etiquette. You can't tell a man here that he lies, as you can down #as%, without fighting. A few days ago a man was jtelling two of his neighbours in my hearing a pretty long story. Says I, ' Stranger, that's a whopper.' Says he, ' Lay there, stranger;' and in the twinkling of an eye I found myself in a ditch, a perfect quadruped, the worse for wear and tear. Upon another occasion, says I, to a man I never saw before, as a woman passed bim, ' That isn't a specimen of your western women, is it ?' Says he, 'You're afraid of the fever and ague, stranger, ant you ? ' Very much,' says I. ' Well,' replied he, ' that lady is my wife, and if you don't apologise in two minutes, by the honour of a gentleman I swear that these two pistols (which he held cocked in his hands) shall cure you of that disorder entirely ; so don't fear, 6tranger.' So I knelt down and apologised. I admire this western country much, but I can't stand so much etiquette ; it always takes me so unawares. — Chicago Democrat. Heraldic Emblems. — Heraldic emblems were used in England as long back as the year 1189; they were generally painted on a small shield, and worn fastened to the belt. During feasts, and other pacific solemnities, the shield of each knight was suspended behind him. His Holiness the Pope carries a representation of St. Peter's key, as an emblem of great trust ; and most of the European cities and towns derive their arms from symbolical allusion to the history of their particular spot or neighbourhood, as the various incorporated companies have some device in their arms emblematical of their profession or trade. Thus King Edward the Third granted the company of grocers a cheveron, gules, between nine cloves, sable. Henry the Seventh gave the company of merchant tailors a tent-royal between two parliamentary robes. The celebrated Le Notre, who planted the gardens of Versailles, St. Cloud, the Tuillerieß the Champs Elyse'es, and several other royal pleasure grounds, was rewarded by a patent of nobility by Louis the Fourteenth, on which occasion he chose for his arms a cabbage, with a spade and a rake for supporters ; alleging, that he owed so many obligations to gardening, that he would not have his descendants lose the remembrance of them.