THE Grey River Argus. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1870.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 752, 12 November 1870, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1870.

His Honor the Superintendent of Nelson has delivered himself of hiffclefence to large public meetings at Westport and Charleston, and, judging from the reports in the local papers, he has succeeded in smoothing away a good many of the -acerbities of feeling with which he was regarded by his subjects on the South-west Gold Fields. Whilst we have always been ready to make great allowances for the Nelson Government against the very sweeping allegations of neglect and misconduct that have been hurled against it ; .still, after making these allowances, aud taking into consideration that the Government is not merely the Government of the Gold Fields but of the whole Province, we have been forced to the conviction that the miners have had Btrong reasons fur their dissatisfaction. Mr Curtis has said nothing in his public utterances to justify us in qualifying this opinion. He has, it is true, quoted a mass figures, intended to prove that the Gold Fields have received their fair quota of expenditure, but figures may be so handled as to be made to prove anything. In his speeches at Westport and Charleston, Mr Curtis read a statement setting forth the comparative expenditure during his and his predecessor's term of office, in which he made ont that whilst during 1865, 1866, and 1867 the expenditure on the Gold Fields under Mr Saunders amounted on the average to about 34 per cent, on the whole revenue of the Province, the expenditure during his own period had reached about 64 per cent. We do not question the general accuracy of these figures, but we may take exception to the method in which the Gold Fields have been charged with their proportion of the general charges of the administration of the Province. Seven

thousand five hundred pounds per annum a is charged to the South-west Gold Fields 1 is their share of the cost of the general ] expenses of the Province. These ex- ) l penses include the .following items : — * Salaries of Superintendent and Executive, Provincial Council, Chief Engineer, cost of Survey Ofiice, Land Office, Gaol, Police, Hospital, Lunatic Asylum, Printing, Education, Nelson and Cobden Railway, interest on Bank overdraft, and other miscellaneous services. No doubt the Gold Fields ought to bear a proportion of these expenses ; but certainly not that debited to them by the Superintendent. The expenses of administration as far as the head offices are concerned, have been very little increased by the discovery of gold, whilst the Gold Fields are especially charged with the cost of local administration, which amounts to .£36,000 annually on Warden Courts, Gaols, Land, Survey, and Public Works Officers, and. charitable aid. To have made a perfectly fair statement these charges should have been added to the general charges of the province aud the proportion then struck, not as the matter now stands, viz. — the West Coast Gold Fields being made to bear their share of the cost of the departments in Nelson, but having the whole burden in addition of their local administration. Had the vdwle admistrative expense of the province been included, and the Gold Fields were debited with their proportion according to the relative contributions of revenue, that proportion would have been about £33,000 per annum against £43,000 now charged. This £10,000 of over-payment is really a a large foundation for complaint, and justifies the inhabitants of the Gold Fields in their accusations against the Government. The Gold Fields have, in fact, been made the means of relieving the rest of the Province of a large proportion of its contributions to the cost of Government, and it is much in this light that the diggings have been considered by the old settlers of Nelson. And it is doubtless a similar feeling thai has influenced the policy of the Government. They have never realised the value and importance of the Gold Fields, nor the necessity for pushing them ahead. Mr Curtis deprecates the idea of keeping separate accounts | for the Gold Fields, as distinct from the rest of the Province ; and he has not. scrupled to employ Gold Fields revenue for other than Gold Fields purposes. If he de3ire to be impartial in maintaining this homogenousness, he should not rest satisfied with saying to the Gold Fields, " You have contributed so much of the general revenue, you shall have the same proportion of expenditure ;" but he should rise superior to this book-keeping style of policy, and should grasp the question in a different way. He should be prepared to argue that, as the Gold Fields are the most important element in the prosperity of his Province and of the Colony, they should be encouraged aud developed by a liberal and judicious expenditure, even if the rest of the-Province has to make concessions. What would the Province of. Nelson be without its Gold Fields ? Would Mr Curtis like to see his Province relapse into its previous moribund, somnolent condition ? The South-west Gold Fields have raised Nelson into political importance, and they have been the means of enriching its farmers and producers, who, were the Gold Fields to fail, would lose the most profitable, and nearlytheonly market they have got. It is in this light that the Nelson Government ought to regard this portion of the Province, and they should make the conservation and encouragement of the mining industry, the first basis of their policy. It is the want of this spirit that has occasioned the dissatisfaction so widely prevalent. The miners have felt themselves neglected, and their most simple and urgent wants have been set aside. It is to be hoped that the visit of Mr Curtis and his face-to-face communications with the Gold Fields population will inaugurate a new and j better era — one that will bring fresh prosperity alike to the Gold Fields and the rest of the Province.