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Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 735, 4 October 1870, Page 2

The manner in which the Nelson Government contiuues to deal with the Grey District on the north side of the river is the cause of an immense amount of discontent on the part cf the residents. And no wonder, for after all the promises which were made by the Superintendent and the members of the Provincial Council during the last session, as to tho extent of public works which were tc be carried out in the Grey Valley during tho present session ; and after all the thousands which the Council so liberally voted, nothing whatever has been done, and little or no money has been expended. Nearly six months of the financ'al year have already gone, and, instead of the promised roads, tracks and bridges, what do we see? Stagnation everywhere, all public works stopped ; no attempt made to assist the miners in penetrating into the country for the purpose of developing its resources ; while the revenues of a magnificent district are bein* systematically drained away, to be spent in making roads and bridges in the agricultural settlements at the head of Blind Bay. This do-nothing policy is severely felt in every part of the up-country districts, as most of what are by courtesy or custom called tracks, are nothing but mud-lakes, almost impassable, while there are many districts in which there are no tracks whatever, which have been promised them for years past. The great want of the Grey District is a main dray road from the port ri-ht up the Valley, which ought to have been made by the combined Nelson and Westland Government, long a«o, but so long as the district remains under two Governments, each jealous of the other, we need not expect to see a work of this nature carried out ; and besides, we suppose we must not agitate for it at the present time, when the simple work of repairing a track is too much for a paternal Government ; but at whatever cost or risk this is a work which these Governments must either bo induced or forced into carrying out at no distant date. It will be remembered that the session before last of the Nelson Provincial Council, ,£9OOO were voted for the construction of roads and tracks in the Grey Valley ; and during the year only £2000 were spent —we mi?ht say frittered away —on works for which there is now nothing to show. During the last session of the Council the same mysterious £9000 were again voted for the Grey Valley, and the Superintendent, in an address, pledged his word that for the future greater attention would be paid to the wants of the residents in the Grey Valley ; and for a time the people were satisfied. But it must not be forgotten that upon both of those occasions there was considerable political agitation in the district, and the result proves that the high-sounding promises we have referred to were made simply to calm the agitation, and allow the Government to "drift " on its way, undisturbed by what appeared to it to be the noisy meetings aud violent protests of a dissatisfied population. This year will be even worse than the last, for nothing whatever is being done to improve the means of communication in the district ; the memorials of the residents, prepared at monster public meetings, and unanimously adopted, are unheeded, or simply replied to by another nicely- worded official promise, almost at the same moment that the order conies from headquarters to stop all public works. The reason for this moat anomalous state of affairs is only to be found in the explanation given by Mr A. Reid of the reasons which induced him to resign his seat in the Nelson Executive as Gold Fields Secretary, viz., that the majority of the votes for public works on the West Coast proved to be retrospective, instead of for current expenditure, and as there was absolutely little or nothing co administer during the year his position was a pretence, an imposition on the mining community to which he could not lend himself. We are thankful that there was at least one politically-honest man in the Nelson Executive, and that he has acted upon his convictions of truth and justice by resigning an office which he found to be practically useless so long as there was no money^to expend upon public works in the districts, for the good government of which he was supposed to be responsible. The residents in the Grey Valley now know that there is little hope of anything being carried out in the shape of public works during the next few months, unless they are particularly active, and continue to agitate until their wishes are complied with. If the Provincial Government persists in the line of policy it has so long carried out in this district, perhaps an appeal to the General Govern men l , to be taken over, such as was made some years ago by the Gold Fields of Otago, might have the desired effect. We will have a little more to say on this subject shortly.