THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1870.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 649, 17 March 1870, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1870.

Asr eyent siiph as occurred on Monday night, when our two representatives in the County Council addressed their constituents, by way of giving an r account of vheir stewardship, cannot ba allowed to p^ss without more notice than can be given in an imperfectly compiled report necessarily hastily prepared at the conclusion of a meeting which extended to nearly mid night. On this occasion our members had aLo to vindicate their late political conduct, and their own public characters from aspersions which had been cast upon them, both publicly and privately, during their absence in Hokitika. Whether they succeeded in rebutting all the charges which were made against them remained for the .public to say, and we suppose that the vote of continued confidence in them as our representatives, which was passed at the close of the meeting, must be taken to mean that they had. There was a little growl, and some slight show of opposition, but nothiug came of it, beyond «, vindication by one gentleman of the position taken up by the : late- indignation meeting, so far as the facts and figures then adduced were concerned. In that vindication we join with Mr Perkins, and were mnch surprised to hear Mr Harrison question the figures which had been supplied by his colleague, Mr Lahman, who obtained them from the Treasury. The great fact upon which all the arguments used at the indignation meeting were based was that one-third of the entire revenue of Wes'.l&ud was contributed by Greymouth, and tfoat consequently, by right, after ded*»ting"«ur fair share of the cost of Government, some £4000 or £5000 ought to be spent iv this district on public works every six months. This was afterwards corroborated, by Mr Lafiman, in tHe course of his speech, but concerning it Mr Harrison said, "He would not say, that Mr Perkjns spoke knowingly what was not true, but there was a large amount of f ogginess about his figures .... His friend, Mr Perkins, in a speech, which would have been very forcible if based upon truth, had stated that the revenue wj.s bo and so, the expenditure so and so — verdict, a vote of want of confidence in the County Council and every one connected with it." After this serious accusation Mr Harmon did not proceed to demolish Mr Perkins' proposition, as every one expected, but contented himself with a general statement of the cost qf Government i» ' Westland, which he said amounted to 80 per cent, of the revenue, and could not possibly be done more economically, as he believed the departments were now " cut down to the lowest point of effioiericy." As we have said, the principal argument used on the occasion of the indignation meeting was corroborated by Mr Lahman, and remains the fact still, notwithstanding the tone adopted by Mr Harrison. We think the true solution is that Mr Harrison was hurt at hia conduct on the Arahura and Coal Pits roads' question being misunderstood, and, perhaps unintentionally, misrepresented to his constituents at that meeting, when it was stated by Mr Perkins that " the crowning act of injustice of all was Mr Harrison voting against the making of the Coal Pits road"— at the same time it -was generally believed that he had voted for the Arahura road. The explanation is that Mr Harrison opposed the Arahura road all through, except when he voted for calling tenders for the making of the road, in order to ascertain the cos*, and thus defeat its advocates with their own weapons. On the same principle he also consistently opposed the making of the Coal Pits road, because he considered the deferred j payment principle pernicious, and tending only to land the County in bankruptcy. The principle which actuated him was. that the County must first have its credit made good by being liberated from the thraldom of the Bank of New Zealand, before any further public works were proceeded with ; bqt under the peculiar circumstances in which the County is placed, it js open to serious consideration and after debate, whether, as Mr Lahman put it, a pound spent now on road-making is not worth double the amount spent some years hence, because it would keep population in the County, by making them immediately thoroughly prospect it, or settle down on the lands. Mr Lahman gave a fair and luoid statement of the financial position of Westland, and appke cheeriugly of its. future. He explained th,at he also had voted consistently for the making o,f both roads, and, as we all know, the Hokitika one won the day, ami, OjS usu.al, the Grey one Jyst— but

this result would, have been the same whether Mr Lahnion voted for it or not. Rut in his after statement, that the Coal Pits road 'would be made during the present year, we are rather afraid that Mr Lahman has been carried away by his sanguine temperament, and is trusting too much to the promises of his Southern colleagues, who, ho said, had pledged their votes to 1 him, because he had voted for the Arahura* road. In other places this is called '■' log-rolling," but as our representatives strongly protested against this title being applied to their conduct, we will not so characterise it ; but sinjply express the hope that the gentlemen referred to will not forget their pledges, and that before the close of the present year, we will see the completion of the road to the Coal Pius. We give our representatives the credit of saj'ing that we. believe they both acted consistently, and as they believed to be the besc for the furtherance uf the intere3|tg of their constituents.