THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1871.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 1020, 2 November 1871, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1871.

| The subject which has been occupying the attention of the House of Representatives for the last few days has been the manner in which the payments proposed for the, present year are to be made to existing Road Boards, and also to Boards which may hereafter be established. Yesterday we gave an outline of the Government's proposals as to the manner in which the £100,000 should be distributed, and as the matter is one of considerable interest to this district, we may briefly state what action has been taken regarding it. It will be remembered that Mr Curtis'a proposal was that these subsidies should be given only to existing Boards, which would practically have the efiect of putting a stop to ih& creation of new Boards on the South- West Gold Fields, as without revenue they would be inoperative. But this idea was soon exploded, and it was admitted that if there was a necessity for the creation of these Road Boards at all, they should be placed on the same footing ai the others. Mr Curtis and Mr Shephard then stoutly opposed the establishment of these Boards on the Gold Fields of their Province, because, not only would they receive their fixed proportion of the vote, but the Government had announced its intention of dealing with the new Boards on the West Coast in an exceptional manner, as they would have exceptionally heavy calls upon them during the first year, and giving them a fixed proportion of the Gold Fields revenue and gold duty raised in the district. Thus taking the control of the expenditure on public works out of the hands of the Superintendent and his Executive and placing it in those of District Road Boards was too much for Mr Curtis, and his opposition wa3 consequently strongly expressed. It appears, however, that the member for the Grey Valley found a valuable assistant in Mr O'Conor, of Westport. They both attacked the position assumed by Mr Curtis, and exposed to the House the manner in which the whole of the Nelson South- West Gold Fields had. been systematically neglected, their revenues spent elsewhere, anjtl their progress consequently retarded. ) These explanations must have been very! trying to the gentleman who had "constructed five hundred miles of roads and tracks on the Gold Fields," and must have opened the eyes of the Ministry and the members of the House to the manner in which these mining districts have hitherto been treated. An effort was made by Mr Harrison to secure to the whole of the Road Boards established, and to be established on the West Coast both of Nelson and Westland an equitable share of the vote by setting aside for the various electoral districts a proportion on a ratio equal in am junt to what the population of these districts bears to the population of the Colony. This was done with the ulterior view of creating a system of Road Boards over the Gold Fields, and securing to them a portion of the Government vote, which was in danger of being entirely swallowed up by the Boardsnow in existence. The debate in Committee lasted all Tuesday night, and Mr Harrison's motion was defeated by twentythree to nineteen. However, our member continued to watch hi 3 opportunity, and at three o'clock on Wednesday morning he proposed and carried a new clause to the Payment of Provinces Bill, providing for the setting apart of threeelevenths of the sum allotted to Nelson out of the iIIOOjOOO vote, to be held in reserve for distribution among Road Boards to be established on the Nelson South- West Gold Fields lying between the northern boundary of the Buller Electoral District, and the boundary of the County of Westland, wherever that may be shifted to. During the night Mr Curtis saw that it was hopeless to carry his opposition any further, and announced that at the first meeting of the Nelson Provincial Council he would take the initiatory steps for the formation of Road Boards on the South-West Gold Fields, under the rules laid down for the guidance of Superintendents in tb.e classification of these 'Boards, with -a view to the distribution amongst them of the Province's share of the vote. It must not be forgotten that the first principle laid down by the Government is that these subsidies shall be paid only in proportion to the amount of rates levied and collected by the Boards, and that such a subsidy would be received by Boards in districts where the population is scattered in the proportion of £A to £1 raised by populous districts, or districts in the vicinity of towns. This would cause the necessary rating to be extremely light, and not such as to cause any serious obstacle to the Government's proposals. We can look forward to some hot work in Committee when the clauses come on which make the Nelson Gold Fields Road Boards exceptions to the others in tho Colony by granting them a fixed proportion of the Gold Fields revenue and gold duty, but after the opposition which has already been shown, it is doubtful indeed if they will pass.