THE Grey River Argus. SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1870.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 674, 14 May 1870, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1870.

The Estimates of the Nelson Government for the year commencing on the Ist April last, and ending on the 31st March, 1871, are to hand, and we propose to take a glance at them, with the accompanying statements, in order to discover what has really been expended in the district during the past year, and what may be expected in future. The Superintendent has anticipated some increase in the revenue from recent discoveries at the Lyell, Wangapeka, and Oollingwood, and has estimated the total revenue at ,£90,000. This is made up as follows :— Consolidated Revenue, £28,000 ; Land Fund, £5000 ; Gold Duty, .£20,000 ; Gold Fiolds' Revenue, £20,000 ; Pulicans' Licenses £2000; harbor, £800 ; wharves, £700 ; Scab Act, £1000 ; Education Rate, £2000 ; Brunner Coal-mine, £7000 ; miscellaneous, £3500. The sum set down for the Brunner Coalmine ought not to be stated as revenue, as the proposed expenditure upon the mine is a precisely similar amount ; both sums ought to be carried to a separate account, and the expenditure should not be charged, as it is in the Estimates, against public works on the South-West Gold Fields, so as to swell out that item. A glance at the estimated revenue will at once show from what source the largest proportion of the revenue of the Nelson Province is derived, viz., from its muchneglected gold fields and their residents who are so much despised by the officials of Nelson. The proposed expenditure is almost similar to that of last year. We are assured by the Superintendent that it has "been carefully revised, and the Estimates show a reduction of £3848

from, the sum appropriated last year ; of this amount, however, £425 wiil, under recent Acts, be paid by the Colonial Government and charged against the Pro-, vincial share of the Consolidated Revenue. The actual reduction amounts therefore to £3423, or within a fraction of ten per cent of the appropriations of last year, in addition to nearly twenty-five per cent, by which the appropriations for departmental purposes were then reduced. The reduction now effected would have been considerably greater, but for the additions to the staff necessitated by the. extension of the South-West Gold Fields to the Wangapeka district." Turning to the Estimates for the South-West Gold Fields we find little alteration from last year, except that a few salaries have been reduced, the services of the Sub-inspector of Police dispensed with, and those of a Commissioner substituted ; and the subsidies to the Hospitals considerably reduced. For public works on the South-west Gold Fields the following charges are made : — Buller Valley, £3700 ; Grey. Valley, £9000 ; Coast roads, JISOO ; branch roads to new diggings and exploring tracks, £800 ; harbors, signal and removal of snags, £800 ; buildings, £1500 ; protective works and wharf, £2200 ; cemeteries, ; and Brunner Coal-mine (the item we have already objected to), How much reliance may be placed upon those figures can be gathered from a very instructive document which accompanies this year's Estimates, showing the fate of the sums which were voted last session, and beautifully illustrating the absurdity of the present system of Government, when the Superintendent has, or takes upon himself the power to veto the Council's votes, and to spend the money just as he thinks fit. During last session of the Provincial Council, there existed a fear that the Separation Movement, then rampant afc Westport, would spread to the Grey Valley ; and, as a sop to the residents, .£9350 were voted for roads in the district. Great hopes were entertained that a new era had dawned, and that, at last, some amount of justice was about to be meted out to the Grey Valley. But how miserably have we been disappointed ! Out of the sum then voted there has been expended during the year, on roads in the Grey Valley, £2368 11s 7d, leaving a balance unexpended of 8s 5d ! and this, too, during a period in which the revenue of the district has been steadily increasing, although it is impossible, from the documents to hand, to tell in what proportion, as there is in the revenue no classification of districts, as in the expenditure. Other districts have suffered, but not in a like proportion to the Grey. For instance, .£5050 was voted for Buller Valley Roads, and expended ; Coast Roads, £3300 voted, and £1579 expended ; Tracks, £750, and nothing expended ; Dray Road from Westport and Charleston, via Addison's Flat, for which £1500 was voted, L 33 53 have been expended. There has been an excess of expenditure on the Brunner Coal-mine over the vote of last session of LIOB3, but at the same time the mine has not been worked at a loss, as would appear from these figures, because the receipts from it were L 6380, while the expenditure upon it amounted to L 6082. We think we have shown conclusively from these figures that the Grey Valley is the most neglected of all the districts in the Nelson South-West Gold Fields, and that it is likely to remain so, so long as the present Superintendent is in office. Our only hope is that should the Council saaction the appointment of Mr Kynnersley as Commissioner of the gold fields (about which there still appears to be considerable doubt) the wants of this district will receive that amount of consideration which its population, wealth, and importance require, but of which it has I ©en so long deprived by the present Executive.