THE GOVERNMENT OF THE GOL FIELDS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 975, 11 September 1871, Page 2

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE GOL FIELDS.

" PUBLIC MEETING AT NO TOWN.

A public meeting was held at Haisty's Hotel, No Town, on Friday, Bth inst., to take into consideration' the manageuieiit ' of tho ,Grey Valley Gold. Fields by the Nelson Government, .arid to consider the advisability of supporting the petition to .the Assembly, desiring a change. Mr; James Galbraith presided. The resolu-j tions passed at Ahaura on 29th August,^ and the petition resulting from themj were read to the meeting, after which Mr: Edward Hughes proposed the following: resolution— " That this meeting is of; opinion that the resolutions passed at. Ahaura be confirmed, and that the petition be adopted." . . Mr James Coleman seconded the motion, and remarked that it required no; great amount of penetration to discover the gross neglect with which the Gold! Fields had been treated by the Nelson? Government. The effects of mismanagement stared them in the,face, no matter' in which direction they turned. Mr Geo. M'Beath was opposed to the. resolutions, and most certainly would not support the' petition. The Nels"on Government had done its best for ithe Gold Fields, and No Town district especially. The Provincial Government might not be perfection, but he would like to be iuformed what kind of Government it was proposed to substitute forifc. The systemof Road Boards as proposed by Mr; HarrisoriV resolutions^ was- • ndt at ''■ all likely to 'be an improvement s on the' present' 'state of raairs, on;' the contrary the introduction of sneh^asystem would have the effect of more--widely spreading the evils of petty andincompetent local governments, of which, the Paroa Road Board,; and for that; matter the County Council of Westlandi were brilliant samples. The construction! of a main trunk road through 1 the 1 Grey Valley did not materiallyaftect the people \ of the No Town; ; district, hpweyer much i it might "put money into the purses" of; the publicans and other sinners about the Ahaura, and enable the "cockatoos" and, "gunny-bag" squatters" of .Totara Flat to find a market for their chaff, which he ! might remark enpassent, waslargely com- ; posed of fern tops. This petition anc those resolutions they ieard read wen merely clever bnt bare-faced .dodges o the Ahaura people .to get them — the resi dents of the No Town district— by a side wind, to assist in having the seat, o Government changed from Nelson toithi Ahaura, and : from his '(the speaker's knowledge of the people of- the Ahaura they had "cheek" enough to. attempt t< get the seat qf tlie General Govejjnmen changed to Ahaura, and if there woul< be the most remote possibility of such ai occurrence taking place, the. Ahauri people had audacity enough to advocati it. ... He. meant no offence to- Mr- Hayden who he saw was present, and who he (th< speaker) was sorry to 'say now identifie< himself with the Ahauraites, but he woul< again caution the meeting to closely ex amine the nature of the change it wai proppsed to effect; in the Gpvernment Two of the officers of the . Provincia Government visited the No Town dis trict recently and specially enquiret into the wants of the place,. and no om came forward to make complaints. Thi Nelson Government did its best for thi mining community as far as the Provin cial revenues allowed them, and. unless i could be .clearly shown that the proposec Road Board system was a superior .form of government, the people should pausi before they committed themselves to th< support of : the.petition. , ,^ ... .. Aman,.,who said he came from Candle light Creek, here interrupted MrM'Beath. and enquired of the Chairman if it wai admis3able to bring the subject; -off "t dish" before the meeting. On receiving an answer in the negative, he left the room suddenly. : ; ; ' ; MrM. H. Hayden pointed out to Mi M'Beath that the petitjqn th<3 meeting was asked to support did not contain £ single word about Road Boards, _ The framers of the document had specialty avoided any attempt at dictating, to the General Assembly, or pointing out whai form of Government should be substi.tuted for, the present. It simply prayed the Assembly to cause a cjiangei to be made,' and left the question of the future government of the Gold Fields \" to : be decided by the Parliament, It was refreshing to see that the Nelson Goyernment.had at length found a ohampion, and the fact that the " wit, wisdom, and beauty of No Town had chivalrously rushed to the rescue in the person of Mr M'Beath, w^onld, no doubb, be appreciated at head quaftefSy and have its due weight when the necessity of a track through the " Gluepot" was brought under the notice of the "two Government officers" who next visited No Town in search of information as to the requirements of the place. The assertion that, the movement, so universally being agitated, would, if successful, specially benefit Ahaura, was childish. The resolution submitted to the meeting had been adopted at large meetings held at Half-Ounce, Granville, Napoleon, and other places, and.the petition had, received hundreds of signatures from every district in the ,Grey Valley. The fact that an apologist for the Nelson Government jould be found at No Town, and at no jther place, did not surprise him (the speaker). It merely showed how easily ;he people were, satisfied and contented, f the Government would make even aji iffort to perform its duty. After a delay of six years, and after innumerable applications during that- time, the peeple of No Town had succeeded in getting four miles of a honge- track made, and now if two officials" were sent 'to know if 'the district required' anything else, therefore the residents of No Town, according to Mr M'Beath, ought to be satisfied^ with the Provincial Government. It was remarkable tliat these "two. officials'* never turned up anywhere else in the mining districts except at No Town during their tour of enquiry. This mysterious official visit reminded him of the story of the man who was on. the tramp searching for wprk, anl. praying io Providence that ; nobody wonld give him any; and it was evideut chtse officials in search of information as to the requirements of the Grey Valley knew where they were going when they went to No Town for edification. It was argued that the Nelson Government did as much good as |t could with the revenue at cpmmahd ;'. but! then the question aroge, What becajne of tlje reVenue? ] The answejr was, tl^afc the Governnieut^d expenses absorbed the greater portion of \\ the publio money,, an £ that there was ': little or nothing left for the construction i

<M public works. The revenu^s had^fa^len off for the want of these vfarka. |lid'not one^ft the district knew better tßim Mr M'Besth that the construction of a reservoir, or the providing water by any other means, so as to command the higher terraces on the Arnold ployment to thousand! of .men, *nd increase the revenue of the No Town tiißtrict alone one hundredfold. The Nelson Government was too re"s;»ectable T<TBdT?RJr money for the -constrni tion of works on the Gold Fields, although it did not hesitate to beg, borrow, and he' had almost said steal, money when, it became necessary to: Bupply tFe eitf of Nelson with gas or water." ? The people oh the Gold Fields were now assured of the incompetency of the Nelson Government, because, in the firvt place, it has allowed the revenue to fall away, through wilful neglect, and because it has shown itself incapable of regulating its expenditure in accordance with its income, for instead of reducing iUidepartmental expenses, it has actually increased them, so that it takes nearly half the&tal revenue to pay salaries and " contingencies." This had been borne long enough, and seeing that the Nelson Government had been allowed every opportunity of amendment without any good result, the next best thing to do was to sweep it awiy altogether. The speaker, icpnclu^ed^' '% urging on those present the adoption of the resolution and petition, and. the necessity of united action in a crisis like the present. Messrs Q'Riely, M'Oarthy,, and Riely also suppo?ted_the k re3piutjpn,^whicU.F.«Lpjji.to the meeting and carriedj-there being only one hand held up against it. Mr James Robehtson moved, and Mr Thos. Bbaidb seconded?-" That the following gentlemen^ be Appointed a local committee, to forward Vtfe objects of tb.9 petition : — Messrs Jas.TMKlloy, G. Haisty, Jon Corbet^ T. Braidei Qwenn O'Rrelhr, John Clifford, P. Gillan,' T. Rqndle,l»fe. Galbraith, C. Gothard, E. Hughes, John Marshall, and the mover. A vote af thanks,- to the Chairman terminated .the proceedings. ■ . " y".':^- 7 K^"- / Ui