THE Grey Riber Argus. TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1870.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 660, 12 April 1870, Page 2

THE Grey Riber Argus. TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1870.

From the position which Mr Kynnersley holds, not only officially, but also in the confidence of >the residents on the Nelson South- West. Gold Fields, any utterances of his. usually carry great weight with those to whom they are addressed. Consequently the speeches he has made within the last few days, during -his tour of inspection—at Westport, Charleston, Brighton, Ahaura, and Napoleon— may be accepted as a very fair index of the intentions' of the Nelson Government towards the .several districts, at least so far as Mr Kynnersley has yet been let into the secrets of the Government mode of managing these Gold Fields, and what may be expected fprthe. future. Mr Kynnersley isnot'a'talkingman — his/or£eis action, and his;big speech at Westport seems to have exhausted his arguments. But luckily we can refer to that speech, and we regret to find that on many points most material to the welfare of the Nelson Grey district we must differ with him, but we do so with the impression that had Mr Kyntie'raley not been imbued with a tinge of Nelson ideas (we won't say prejudices, because we believe him to be above such a tiling) there would have been, no cause of difference. During 3iis absence in the old country many changes have taken place on these Gold Fields- — changes both of circumstances and opinions — but nonedn old "Sleepy Hollow" from which: .hey are governed, and, consequently, those who, to use a - common saying, " can never see beyond their own noses," cannot believe iri advancement and prosperity elsewhere, and cannot be induced to anake any. provision to meet the altered circumstances of the case. We have sufficient confidence in Mr Kynnersley's sharpness of vision to see these changes, that nothing whatever has been done on the part of the Government to keep pace with them ; that, in fact, since he left the district nothing whatever has been done for it in the shape of public works, not a mile of decent road has been made ; that the revenues of the district have been absorbed in We3cport aud. Nelson .city ; ond, that, consequently, the residents of the Grey district have every cause to grumble, and to protest: against the system of Government under : which their lot has placed them, and our sincere hope is that he will be endowed with supreme control over the expenditure in these districts, so that an opportunity may be 1 given him of, in some measure, remedying the mischief which lias already been done by the maladministration of; the last two yeara. It is not yet arranged what position Mr Kynnersley shall occupy on. these Gold Fields. He is simply a Resident . Magistrate and Warden at Waugapeka, and a member of the Executive, and will not be created a Commissioner of the Gold Fields or Secretary of the Gold Field's,' or whatever name the officer may bear, until the wishes of the 1 people are known and expressed at the next meeting of the Nelson Provincial Council. It was not, tlieref orepsurprising ■Jihat Mr Kynnersley should . be a little diffident in mentioning this Bubject during his tour, because it would ' naturally bo said that he was directing public Opinion towards the feathering of his own nest, because it is known that, in the present state of public opinion, no other * gentleman can be appointed: tpithe office. Whether or, not it was a wise step on the i part pf Mr Kynnersley to join the Nelson , Executive remains to be seen; but our impression is that it was unwise, as tend-

ing to limit his usefulness to the various districts, if; nominated, as he is almost sure to be, as Commissioner. or Secretary of the South- West Gold Fields. The time has arrived w&e'h the appointment of such an officer is imperatively demanded, and the appointment given to a gentleman who not only understands the wants of !^RB*^istrict"when~they are presented to him, but who is also capable, from his training, to take a deep interest in the of the mining population under his care/instead of being ever ready, as our Nelson officials have been, to poohpooh anything relating to that interest that is laid' before them. The only gentleman in Nelson thoroughly fitted for that office is Mr Kynnersley ; and we hope soon to be. able to announce that, he is Gold Fields Commissioner, and free from the trammels of the, Nelson Executive. '■■;To come now to one or two of the points upon which we cannot agree with Mr Kynnersley, we refer first to the recent agitation for separation of the South- West Gold Fields from the Province of Nelson. On this subject he said, at Westport : — " I am vory glad myself that separation of the West Coast from Nelson Avas riot effected. I' had considered the subject before I left, and I did not, and do not, see how this district could be created a county. There are no natural boundaries for it. Anyone examining the features of this district, or anyone conversant with them, can see that there are. no natural boundaries to it at all. If Westport, Charleston, and ; Brighton, are included, some arbitrary line must be drawn in the Upper Buller district,' continuing down to the Grey ; and the Grey is an important and prosperous, district, much more allied with Westland than with Nelson. I have always considered the Grey River to be a very bad boundary,, and, without giving any opinion a3 to whether it should be Nelson or Westland, that it would be a great advantage to both sides of the valley if they were under one government. ' But there is no more natural connection between the Grey and the Buller than there is between the Buller and Nelson, and I never could see how any line for a separate county, including. Westport, Charleston, and Brighton, could be drawn. 1 believe that the cry for Separation was very 'much owing to misunderstanding— to a want of information on botlrsides." ' It is an easy and perhaps pleasant way of getting out of the difficulty to call the recent agitation a "misunderstanding." The names by which it was known in the Grey District were "neglect," "misgovernment," and " misappropriation of our revenues "—to use no harder termsarid we have ho hesitation in saying that had that agitation been properly con.ducted, had it not been crossed, as it wer'ej by an agitation for the creation of a. separate County for the Grey Valley, it would have been successful ; and we have little hesitation in saying that were a similar movement set on foot now its success would be assured, because there still remains in the minds of the residents in the Grey Valley a deep-seated hatred of the Curtis Government, which has dealt so unjustly with them during past years. There appears at present to be a disposition on the part of that Government to blind the people of this district by spacious ; promises, but it is to be hoped that they will not be led astray by the show of work which is now going on in the shape of laying out lines fur new lines of road or track, for we have good reason for knowing that all the work of that kind which is at present being done is only so much money thrown away, without any intention of the works being carried out, except in one solitary instance. With regard to the present boundary-line we have Mr Kynnersley's opinion on record that it is unsatisfactory and ought to be altered, because it is highly expedient that the whole valley of the Grey should be under one Government, instead of two as at present ; but it is a very shallow argument to advance because no more natural boundary can be obtained the present unnatural one ought to be continued ; and we must say that we expected something more clear and conclusive on this important point from one who obtains the credit of being such a close observer and clear reasoner as Mr Kynnersley. The , various remedies proposed for the alienation of present dissatisfaction we purpose considering at length on an early day, as we cannot proceed further within our ordinary limits.