THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1108, 15 February 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1872.

Only the other day it jras announced by "fia*(a~coirjomtiy"rec6mmendedl;Ke Colonial Government to divert £6000 from the £24,000 voted for roads on the SouthWest Gold Fields, to be expended in the Waimea District. We felt so confident that the member for the Grey Valley could never for a moment entertain such a proposition, far less be a party to it, that we publicly contradicted the statement. Since then we have received our Wellington files, and in the Independent of the 7th we find the following letter from Mr Harrison, which fully bears out what we said at the time, and which exposes the : audacious attempt of the Superintendent of Nelson once more to rob the Gold Fields of their fair share of the expenditure : — " 1 notice that in Greville'a telegram from Westport announcing the extreme dissatisfaction in that part of the Nelson Province with regard to the Provincial Government, ray name is associated with that of Mr Curtis a3 having recommended to the Colonial Governi ment the expenditure of £6000 in the Waimea District out of the sum voted by the Assembly for road-works on the Nelson Gold Fields, thus diverting the money | from the purpose to which it was intended to be applied. I have to state that I have had no part whatever in any such recommendation. Some few weeks ago Mr Curtis and myself had an interview with the Minister of Public Works for the Middle Island, and we came to an understanding that the £24,000 available for roads on the South-West Gold Fields should be applied to the construction of roads connecting the Inangahua reefs with the ports of Westport and Greymouth respectively. The recommendation to expend £6000 of this sum in the home districts of Nelson is a subsequent and independent action on the part of Mr Curtis, and I have already expressed to the Government my opinion that such an expenditure would be a flagrant violation of the intention of the Legislature. I thoroughly sympathise with the residents on the Nelson Gold Fields in their complaints of the Nelson Government, and I trust with them that the visit of the Premier will lead to Bteps being taken to relieve the. Provincial Government of Nelson of a trußt which it has proved itself utterly incapable of discharging, and to give the Gold Fields the power of local government."