CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IX, Issue 440, 10 August 1850, Page 95

CORRESPONDENCE.

To th« Editor or tub Nilbon Examiner.

Sir— l should not think it worth while to notice your article of last week on the subject of the Colonial Bank, and the particular point in debate between us, bnt for the somewhat strange and unnecessary remark it contains as to my "fiith in the virtues of Colonial Gover. now'* — which, so far as it has, any relevant meaning or object, would seem to imply a habit of deferential consideration on my part for the conduct and opinions of Governors in general, and that some such obsequiousness, forsooth, induced my belief that Sir George Grey would, as a thing of course, respect and carry out Earl Grey's instructions in this particular matter! Now, my faith in colonial Governors, or other colonial authorities, is in the abstract no more than about on a par with my faith in colonial newspaper editors, stockowners, traders, or any other class of colonial people ; and most certainly I know of nothing that either should or would prevent me now, as heretofore, freely and fairly criticising their proceedings whenever such proceedings appeared to me to require it. The poet Cowper, somewhere in one of his letters, says of lords — " A man's lordship is nothing to me any further than in connexion with qualities that tntitle him to my respect," and bo, if I know myself at all, I should be disposed to say as to colonial Governors. My faith in Sir George Grey's virtues, as you term them, so tar as relates to the ever-vexed province of general politics, may perhaps not differ very much from that of most people: that faith, however, whether great of small, authorises me at all events to believe bis Excellency to be (to use a coarse but significant expression) no fool. To that extent certainly I have faith in Sir George Grey.-and shall continue to have unttl I find that his Excellency, equally to his own prejudice and the prejudice of the colony, and in the face of every conceivable motive that could induce a contrary Course, has actually disregarded Lord Grey's instructions respecting the mode of investing the Bank's Surplus specie. If, however, your view of the question be correct, Mr. Editor, and it be clear, or at all probable, from Sir George Grey's character, and all the analogies or precedents (though precedents, or even analogies, in such a matter as this, there are, strictly speaking, none at all, as your readers will see when they read the instructions) of illegal debentures, penny-an-acre proclamations, excessive and unauthorised Government expenditure, &c. (all which instances, by-tbe-bye, of instructions infringed, where of a strictly financial nature, appear from their well-known results in the case of Captain Fitz Roy, to be rather examples to deter his Excellency from, than inducements to him to attempt further, experiments upon the temper of the home authorities) — if, I say, it be clear or probable that Sir George will act the part of a fool or a madman, and refuse to avail himself of the arrangements prescribed by the Colonial Minister for the advantage of the Bank, and so manifestly well adapted for the purpose in view, as well as for relieving the Governor himself from much anxious care and responsibility — then the sooner the public, and you, their Cerberus, run down and put an end to that Bank and its paper, the better for the whole colony ; for it seems idle to expect to obtain through any mere Ordinance yet to be passed, additional security for* the safe and prudent management of its affairs, so long as the same insensate, personage possesses the chief control over them, and like chaos, "vampire sits" — prepared at any time to defy all the ordinary restraints of instructions, ordinances, experience, probability, and common sense, as well as his own most evident self-interest.

I am, &c, Francis Jollie.

Thackwood, Aug. 8,, 1850.

Science and the Working Man. — In every trade and occupation there is science. Every labourer is a practical philosopher, though ' too often, like the bee or beaver, working in the dark, performing prodigies oT science without having the least idea of hi* own skill. This ought not to be. Animals may work from instinct, but reason and science are the only proper guides for mankind: nor should' the- workman be a mere machine, moved by a skill or philosophy , of others ; his mind should be as well versed with the science of his trade as his hand is with the, art: and to arrive at this degree of knowledge is not so hard as some suppose, because there are truth and philosophy in everything. ' The quarrynian, in hewing stones ; the mason or statuary in shaping them, or the poor man in breaking them, have had volumes of facts before their eyes, which if registered might have settled all. the knotty points in mineralogy. And the same may lie said of him who sinks' mines, levels Tiills, cuts through -the hearts of mountains, 1 or even lavs down the gravel or pebbles in the garden walkHow true the words* that the thinking find

" Tongues hi .tree», books ia ° th* raining brooks, • - SnmoM in stones, and good in ewyUiincl" ', . Every worker in iron, brass, tin, copper, steel, silver, or." gold, is perpetually, experimenting in thobe' metals, therefore has an immense sphere of natural science and philosophy glittering before him. What a physiologist the butcher' ought to be! What a botanist, and, indeed, naturalist, generally; every farmer's man and dairymaid might become ! Many of these have ten thousand more advantages for study than Solomon. - The philosopher walk's- miles hi pursuit of truth; but truth follows and environs the cowherds, shepherds, and ploughmen. The experimentalist has to put up forges, or furnish laboratories, at great trouble and expense; but the smelter, the blacksmith, the founder, the glass-blower, and a hundred other mechanics and operatives, have all thu apparatus daily before them, .and therefore, without any trouble, might sound the depths an.) scan the highU of knowledge. "Nothing would l» required but a little observation.-*- JTotvKiw 'lf <ln'# Friend.