THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1102, 8 February 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1872.

Of the patience and long-suffering of the population of the Grey Valley under Nelson administration there is no better proof than is contained in the annual record of the Votes and Proceedings; of the Provincial Council. That record speaks for itself, and requires no comment. It is eminently indicative of maladministration ?n the case of the Little Grey Saddle Road, with regard to which our columns have lately contained some warai expressions of opinion, and the fact 3 recorded are well worthy of quotation. Going no further back than the year 1870, we find from thi3 record that in the session of that year there was voted for the construction of a road over the Little Grey Saddle the exceedingly modest sura of £503. But the modesty of the Council was as nothing compared with the impudence of the Executive, or, we should rather say, of the Superintendent, for, without either explanation or excuse, he, last year tabled a comparative statement of estimates and expenditure, and that statement revealed the fact that, of the iSOO thus voted, four pounds sterling had positively been spent ! And this case was not an exceptional one. In the same column of suggestive figures there appears another vote of £500, of which £30 was spent, and yet another vote of a similar amount, of which there was expended just five pounds, ten shillings, and no pence. DuriDg the same session, that of 1871, the cockles of the hearts of Councillors were so warmed that for £500 they substituted a vote of LIOOO, and the history of the manner in which this vote was. hawked about, with tho hope of raising a similar sum from the pockets of a community already over-taxed, is sufficiently fresh in the memories of our readers. It is apparent, that but for the interposition of the General Government another year would have come and gone without attention being paid either to the wishes of the Counc'l or to the urgent necessities of the case. Even as it is, this interposition might have miscarried but for tlie agitation which has been made, and . which has resulted, at last, in a duplicate survey b?ing secured. But for the work being undertaken by_ the General Government, another comparison of estimates and expenditure equally amiming to tne reader, although of serious import to the settler, would have to be placed before the Council, and no word of rebuke could have been raised, simply because bvtho ingenious method by which the West Coast vote 3 are inserted in the Estimates, the Superintendent is bound by nothing but his own ende of morals to cany out these particular votes. Though the actual figures are inseited, they are hot placed in that column in which all votes for the Nelson side are arrayed. They are placed in what might be called the conditional column, and for all practical purposes might as well be omitted from the Estimates. By this piece of clerical legerdema'n, the Superintendent is relieved from responsibility for the expenditure or non -expenditure of any one item of the lump sum voted for the West Coast, and irate member? of Council have no alternative but to look with blank* faces at blank columns, and to hope that the same will not occur again. Twice they have done this since the commencement of the present Council, but "* they do their duty during the forthcoming session they will no longer be hoodwinked by this reprehensible ruse, but insist upon the. votes being so placed that they sha'l be individually expended, or, if not expended, that they ("the members) shall know the reason why. Of the ingenuity of the Nelson Government in manipulating moneys voted for the West Coast, a notable instance seems to have been brought under the attention of the Premier by the deputation which waited upon him the other day at Westport. Of the exact founds of complaint in that case wo are not fully informed, but from the state-, ment by tho deputation it would seem, that a sum of iCOOO which ought to form part, of the West Coast expenditure by the Gonernl Government was intended to be diverted from its proper purpose, I and to be expended in one of the Road Board districts of Nelson, the Waimea. Whether this, district, by fictionel extension, has been made to include the district of the Upper

Buller, or whetherthe 3>6000 is' an item adflitional to that proposed to be spent in that district, we are equally atalos3 to say; but in either case it isan.obvious diversion of a large sum of tho Assetr.bly's vote to a purpose which members of the Assembly certainly never contemplated. It was remarked at the time of the recent speech by Mr Curtis as member for Nelson, that his statoment that a certain amount was to be expended on the IJpper Buller was a suspicious one— that the expression "Upper Buller," while smacking of tbe West Coast, might mean a portion of Nelson proper rather than tho Gold Fields— and it is not . improbable that it is to this expenditure that the Westport deputation referred. In their representations to the Premier, that deputation, it would seem, associated with tho name of Mr Oortifj that of Mr Hau-i---son, attributing to him a share of the responsibility of diverting from the West Coast a portion of the fund which he was Ihiraself instrumental ?i procuring, but we must require further evidence of his complicity in the matter before believ ; 'ig that he could so stult : fy himself. If there is one point upon which he would be more particular than another it would be the expenditure of the Gold Fields share of the fund wholly and solely on theXi old Fields, and, in asking that, the Westport deputation only asked what he Lad previously approved, and what it tuust be the resolate endeavor of fche Gold. Fields population to secure. Since the foregoing was : n type, we have received from Wellington a telegram which confirms our impression on this matter, so far aa the member for the Grey Valley is conce" ned. Whatever may be designated the Waimea district, it is plain that a proposal has been made by Mr Curtis to divert from the West Coast to another part of the Province a very large slice of the Gold Fields share of the Railway Fund, and, after the clear understanding that was come to by the Assembly, it is a proposal which cannot be otherwise described than " a gross violation of good faith."