NELSON.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XVII, Issue 1764, 28 June 1862, Page 3

NELSON.

No. 2. f Communicated ) A snug semi rural, semi-city, semi-land, semiwater situation is Nelson, perhaps a little too much of the amphibious. Approaching by a spacious bay, the scenei y is highly picturesque. Lofty mountains in its background, rising pile behind pile, and peak beyond peak, give a majesty to the whole view, and near, in the foreground, Nelson College, with surrounding comfortable looking suburban residences, attract admiring attention. Nearer, the Episcopal church and steeple perched on a lovely knoll, look down in modest pre-eminence on the level tenements beneath ; the Episcopal city of Nelson. At foot of a sheltering lull is the wharf, but the harbour is locked in by a long boulder bank of several miles in length ; and so appositely does this natural barrier appear to the wondering stranger, that he is almost tempted to exclaim, surely art has wrought this astonishing miracle of an embankment, not nature. At the west only of this remarkable shelter can vessels get into harbour, and large ships must await the tides, which run into the basin, and

through the wharfage posts with great strength and rapidity. In our humble opinion Nelson must yield the palm to Wellington as a healthy situation. Notwithstanding so much is said about windy Wellington, yet the breeze of Wellington is preferable to the damp of Nelson. It must be admitted. however, that Nelson residents have done more towaids adorning their domiciles than their compeers. The weeping and shady willow grows in especial favour and abundance. Gardens and fruit trees of various kinds, and vineries, serve for the triple purposes of utility, of ornament, and of shelter. Nelson and suburbs hold the most charming situations of any in all the Australias. The inhabitants will yield to none in general intelligence, and some excel in particular science. The appearance of Nelson and scenery as a whole is far superior to Dunedin, so much bepraised by rhapsodists who mayhap had never previously seen hills 1000 feet high, or sheets of water larger than artificial millponds. Nelson jetty permits ships of 1100 tons to lie alongside close in shore*, and although a fourth of a mile from the city, stores, a good road, and a railway, afford easy communication, and no confusion like as at disorderly Dunedin.

Nelson, notwithstanding its waterlandish position, contains many tasteful buildings, but like every erection in these colonies, timber, timber, everlasting—no, no—perishable timber

is the chief substance for the construction. This choice is more remarkable, inasmuch as stone often—bricks always—can be hud for the quarrying or making. A wooden house loses half its value in ten years, is of no value in twenty. The terror about shaking earthquakes and all that kind of half imaginary fears seems to overtop all considerations of solidity, permanency, or of self interest itself. Never mind, that is the residents’ business. The public offices, the club house, Scottish church, girls and boys schools, and many goodly, stores, adorn Nelson. Nothing can surpass the beauty of that little knoll on which is erected the Episcopalian church ; it puts one in mind of the monkish rule in olden times when chuiches, monasteries, abbeys,&c., were always ensconced in the most choice or fertile situations. Again, the College stands in a position little, if nothing inferior to that of the church, is a neat structure, and the cheapness at which education can be obtained in that institution, when compared with Sydney or Melbourne, reflects the highest praise on founders and governors. Who know not those three high and mighty potentates, generally written or printed in capitals, being usually considered capital comparisons, namely, L. S. D. The influence of money, like magnetism, pervades all human space. “Why call the miser miserable ?” Yet Plutus or cash apparently favours some folks, repels and abhors others. Getting money is an art, and by many is magnified to a science. But the keeping of it indicates a greater capability. These three magicians have wrought many good works in Nelson. The flourishing condition of the religious denominations, and their admirable scheme of education, warrant this assertion. No human made laws are perfect. As for the greater part of modern law making, if any mortal comparison beyond the worst can be imagined, then please apply it. The Nelson education scheme is, however, an exception to the general rule. Every householder not absolutely indigent, pays yearly one pound, and also five shillings annually for each child between the ages of four and fourteen, or thereby. No other fees ate payable. Oh, brave Nelsonians I In Nelson College the charges are £8 p.-vear education for out scholars, and £5O board, washing, and all ! Read and ponder “ all people that on earth do dwell.” Why are old maidens held in so general contempt ? Mayhap some have lost their first love and, faithful to the last, decline all other advances. Others have had admirers, but mutual attachments failed to be formed, and a few decline matrimonial bonds, from a spirit of feminine independence. Occasionally several sensibly avoid this union from constitutional infirmities. Now and then may be found instances of such catawampus tempers that it would not be safe for the boldest man to approach nearer than the length of a fishing rod. And yet there live numbers whose unattractive faces and homely persons have not won a single compliment, or one solitary attention from indiscriminating mankind. The Virtues have been usually painted as plain ladies; the brightest pearls are often hid in your simple oyster; the sweetest '* flowers most frequently blow unseen, and waste their perfumes on the desert air.” There is a place in Hampshire New, where old maidens are scarce : when a girl approaches the bounds of dread thirty, and still stands on the tiptoe of expectation, all the marriageable men club together and then draw lots for her. Those who escape pay a bonus to the person who is caught. A scheme of this kind in Nelson would be preferable to Building Societies, Nos. 1,2, 3, for raising up a young Colony. Not that there actually is any scarcity of young scions in Nelson, for of all the places in all the Austral Colonies, in proportion to the grown up inhabitants, Nelson surpasses in this way. But the Colony is wide, and plenty of room for generations to come. Some one said orwrotc, that Society is like shaded silk, which ought to be viewed in ail lights and positions. It is part of our creed, neither under-rate nor overlook minutest matters.

The interests of Nelson and Wellington appear so similar and dovetailed into one another, that the prosperity of one is closely assimilated with the prosperity of the other. Within twelve hours full steaming, no teal benefits can accrue to the one place which will not be shared bountifully by the other. This position of local affairs seems to he tacitly understood, and fewer petty jealousies accordingly exist between

the two than are evinced by bursts of ribald cant n t uufrequently read and heard of from virious lc<s friendly cities, towns and papers. Clear as the sun at high twelve, brothers in the ixjhl, when not a cloud hovers above the horizon. Come then to refreshment. May good feeling always continue and increase ! T O irs is the nn’iiral thirst of industrial labour. No swilling and lushing, (we must use slang to express these abominations ;) and muddling, and boozing, and mops and brooms of Maxkens, &c.. ucc.; wi.hin onr safely tiled holy precincts : I bat individuals have unquestionable droughts either naturally or acquired, is an obvious enough truth, yea even in Nelson. Like true Britons, in a sense, they abide by old beverages, imbibing no republican compounds of egg-noggs, mint-julips, brandy smashes, timbler-doodles, and so on. Gertcs 1 the sound of stone-fence occasionally is ottered, the only kind of stone fencing within Our province, and very unstable of course, these bibbers possess not great intimacy, or even acquaintance with oxygen and hydrogen, Their taste for gin alone is much stronger, whether disguised as mix, jumper, gatter, jaekey. old tom, white satin, tape or blue ruin, the last synonym being most appropriate, bitty six gins or 48 glasses of ale in one day, like honest Gobba’s reckoning of wives, arc small matters for one man, arn’t they ? Nay. it is firmly asserted, that a very decent looking bush building was constructed in a noted part of said province, the .whole lining of which was composed of gin cases! after liquor had been guzzled by potations deep, very likely bv libations also, and yikiy* square sheila or bottles cast awav. ’TzLJnicknamed Ginpalace. llow pleased was our early boyhood when first reading that worthy divine s sermon on the word malt. There have been great, very admirable men in all professions, from the most creative of modern men, Milton and John Bunyan ;—very well, Shakespeare and Burns, if you insist ; back tußrntc, and farther, much farther, to old Homer, as he is called, who composed and sang bis Iliad to the tune of the blind beggar man’s garland, and told lies. And have ye not heard of a Father Matthew, Catholique and Roman Catholic, and M'Nish, his anatomy of drunkenness, and teetotal lecturers and temperance societies; and notwithstanding, and nevertheless, in the emphatic language of a learned proverb writer, “ the sow will again wallow in the rnirc, and the dog return to his vomit.” ,f Man being reasonable must get drunk,” so wrote Lord Byron ; a curious and extraordinary way of proving reason ; his lordship must have been drunk when penning that line. However, man and apes, baboons, monkeys, and swine, are almost the only beasts which can become habitually drunk; and thus ends my homily. Ten thousand pounds worth of chrome recently exported, and a considerable quantity yet on hand ; the gold diggings prospering in spite of red-tapism of Provincial neglect ; and coal—coal, the black diamonds of the earth, the indispensable element of industry—the potent generator cf force—-coal so likely to turn out of good quality and abundant ;— here, then, are found the materials requisite to create true wealth, and many others will follow’ in course. Oh, rare Nelson !