THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1871.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 999, 9 October 1871, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1871.

Thb resolutions which the member for the Grey Valley thought fit to introduce into the House of Representatives, having for their object the better government of the West Coast Gold Fields, has induced the Government to bring in a Bill having the same object in view. It is therefore highly probable, although we are not yet authorised to say so, that Mr Harrison will have no alternative but to withdraw his resolutions in favor of the Government measure, as, under present circumstances, it would be useless to attempt to fight them through the House as against the propositions of the Government. Should he do as we anticipate, he will be in a position to move amendments to any objectionable features of the Bill which has been introduced by Mr Yogel. The main features of this Bill are that the Grey District to the Teremakau shall be annexed to the Nelson Province, but that a Board of Works shall be established on the Grey Valley Gold Fields, to which will be allotted a fixed proportion of the Gold Fields revenue raised in the district for expenditure on local works. The Board will have the sole control of this expenditure, quite irrespective of the Nelson Provincial Council and the Superintendent. In addition to this proportion of the Gold Fields revenue, we should imagine the Board will receive its proportionate share of the £100,000 proposed by Mr Yogel to be distributed among the Road Boards, is well as having rating powers, and will no doubt receive th© subsidy annually granted by the Nelson Provincial Council to all Road Boards. In fact, this proposal is precisely similar to the constitution of the Timaru and Gladstone Board of Works, in Canterbury Province,- which was created under the Stafford Ministry, and which appears to be working to the satisfaction of the residents. The cases are not analagous, because the one is an agricultural and the other a mining district, and the exercise of rating powers in the Grey Valley would no doubt cause much dissatisfaction, but, as yet, it is only conjecture that such powers will be granted. It is also proposed by the Government Bcheme that the Public Works and Immigration Act of last session shall be altered so as to allow a series of main roads in the Grey Valley to be constructed out of the loan, instead of making the Nelson and Cobden Railway, on the same principle that the main lines of toad are now being made in Westland. The amount of the G*ey District's share of Weatland's liabilities will be settled by arbitration, and adequate representation for the annexed territory is to be given in the Nelson Provincial Council. Such are, we are given to understand, the main features of the new scheme proposed by the Government for the Grey Valley. A change of some kind was expected this session, but Annexation to Nelson was not contemplated, and we are surprised that it should be proposed by the very man who threw it overboard.* last session. There is no use disguising the fact that since then a very Btrong feeling has been raised in the district against the movement, in consequence of the manner in which the Grey Valley has been neglected by the Nelson authorities, and we very much doubt, if it were put to the residents now, whether they would agree to be unconditionally annexed. But the case is altered now that the establishment of a Board of Works on the Gold Fields, with the control of a fixed proportion of the revenue to be expended in tbe district; is

to accompany the change. We cannot, however, give. in our adhesion to the-pro-posed change, of Government until more complete details are before us, but, should the leading features of the scheme be as we have been informed they are, we can see enough gopd in it to justify the member for the district in accepting it as a compromise. The members of the Government have been convinced that some change in the Government of these Gold Fields had become necessary, and also that in any change that was made it was absolutely required that the present boundary^ine should be altered — either that Weatland should be extended to the Razorback, or Nelson to the Teremakau. In the construction of large public works it was very undesirable that paltry local jealousies should be aroused, as might be the case, regarding the railway to the Brunner.Coal Mine, where the. mine would be in one Province,, and the railway line and terminus in another. The same influences might be. brought to bear in the construction of a main road, and the Government determined, in the first place, to alter the boundary line. We are glad of this, because, owing-to this objectionable boundary-line the progress of the districts on both sides of the river have hitherto been very much retarded, owing to the constant agitations for its altertion having been seized upon by both the Westland and Nelson Governments, as an excuse for withholding the construction of public works necessary for its development. In this aspect the change will be beneficial, if, as we have already said, it is accompanied by the provision for the expenditure of a fixed proportion of the revenue on public works within the district. If the Board of Works is properly constituted and managed, with the main lines of road and the railway constructed out of the loan, the change will be decidedly for the better. There is one satisfaction, it cannot possibly be worse than at present, for the districts on both sides of the river are sadly neglected by the Nelson and Westland Governments.

We have simply pointed out in this article what we believe to be the leading features of the new scheme of Government for the Grey Valley, but we abstain from expressing any decided opinion upon it until further information is placed before the public.