THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1111, 19 February 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1872.

As compared with the Premier,, the Superintendent of Nelson, even on what may be figuratively described as his "native heath," the soil of his own Province, must be considered to be for the present one of the dii minores. He is not the novel visitant which tho Premier is, nor is his position, at the present juncture in the hiatory of the Colony and of the West Coast, and when even locally considered, one of equal importance. His sayings and doings, however, derive from this same visit of the Premier, and from what has been done and said in th.it hon. gentleman's presence, an extra degree of interest and significance. If as Superintendent of the Province he arrived on the Sonth-West Gold Fields with little or nothing to say for himself j compared with what might bo said of him or to him, he hns been provided with a sufficient supply of subjects in tho speeches of those who have interviewed Mr Fox, and in what has, with consummate care, been spoken in reply. The advantage which he gains is not so much in the matter of reflected glory, as in the extra facility with which he can address an audience, with the certainty of interesting them, on subjects which, but for the passing visit of the Premier, would have been Hut, atale, and unprofit-

able. Of this advantage Mr Curtis has, ■with the ability and ingenuity < which he so eminently possesses, made excellent use. At Charleston he has already addressed an apparently not unfavorable audience, and he has, for his own gain in argument, judiciously done |so not only as the Superintendent of the Province, 'but as one who, in the double capacity of Superintendent and member of the Assembly, can influence the fate of even Colonial measures of legislation affecting the Gold Fields. His Charleston speech, as reported in the local paper, has, in fact, as much reference to questions of Colonial policy, even down to the question of a protective tariff, as it has to matters of merely Provincial administration. This was, to a certain extent, inevitable and unavoidable, intimately affecting the Gold Fields as some of the more recent measures of legislation do, and ''small blame to him" if he should also take advantage of the opportunity of as eorly as possible referring to the statements made to the Premier, and of refuting them where he can. It is to these attempted refutations, uttered as Superintendent, more than to his expressions of. opinion upon questions of policy, that we mean at present to refer, and as the first of these, on account of the prominence which has been given to the subject, and of the fact that it was elicited by what we may advisedly describe a3 the opportune visit of the Premier, we select his statement on the alleged diversion of a portion of the West Coast share of the Middle Island Railway Fund to other than West Coast purposes. No doubt, Mr Curtis will be afforded at other places than Charleston, and in a more ample manner than he has done, opportunities of explaining the precise locality upon which this money was to be expended, and the reasons for its expenditure ; but we shall accept for the present the Charleston report as sufficiently representing his denial of the socalled diversion. At the Charleston meeting, and upon this subject, Mr Curtis is reported to have said :— "With the money set apart for expenditure on public works by this Act, so far as related to the Nelson and West Coast Gold Fields— a sum of £24,000— it was determined to construct roads, and Upon consultation it had been determined that the most beneficial expenditure would be ensured in constructing a road to connect the Inangahua district with the ports of Greymouth and Westport. At the same time he. expressed a desire, thinking that the whole of the £24,000 would not be necessary for this road, that £6000 should be expended upon the Lyell and Hope district, and £1500 in completing the Coast road between Brighton and Razorback, as the most desirable. By the report of a deputation which waited on Mr Fox in Westport, he had seen that it had been represented to that gentleman by Mr O'Conor that he had endeavored to divert this sum of £6000 from expenditure upon the Gold Fields. A more complete misrepresentation of facts never was made, and it was a subject of great regret that upon this the first visit of the Premier of the Colony to the Coast such misrepresentation should have been set forth. Mr Fox, in referring to this subject before the deputation in Charleston, said, assuming^ as he was justified' in doing, that what Mr O'Conor said was tifue— ' That the sum of ,£6OOO which it was said Mr Curtis was desirous of withdrawing and expending oil the Wainua, it was not the intention It was contrary to intention that, an} of the money appropriated to the Nelson South- West Gold Fields should be expended north of the northern boundary of the Buller district.' Now, the money he (Mr Curtis) had represented as desirable to be expended, so far from being north of the northern boundary, was actually fifty mjles south of it, and the ground of his representation at the time was that by this expenditure the Inangahua would be facilitated in receiving its supplies. He merely mentioned this a# one of a. large number of misrepreaenta.tioiis which had been made to the Premier." Placing upon the Superintendent's own statement, thus recorded, the implicit reliance to which, as coming from a Superintendent, it should be entitled, he can scarcely be said to have even now made a satisfactory explanation. Let it be taken for granted that the roads proposed to be made were positively within the boundaries of the Gold Fields— boundaries, the northern limits of which were a few years ago, when Wangapeka was held by Nelson officials, as warmly disputed as -they are now conveniently extended — was there anything in the surveys or the 'estimates of the Grey and Buller road, to show that the sum voted was not all required for its construction 1 Is it not rather the fact that the rood, even when finished as contemplated, would, be incomplete for its purpose, and that afc the very moment that these £6000 were being taken away as near to Nelson as boundaries and decency would admit, the residents of Greymouth and the Grey Valley were memorialising the Government to permit them to make it complete, by extending it at their own immediate cost? And this altogether irrespective of the claim which might fairly exist for |its 'extension on the other side of the Saddle, either up or down tho Bnller. The danger rather was that, without a special draft upon the Provincial funds, the two termini of the road, or at any rate the terminus in the Grey Valley, would be at a, point to which no sufficient communication at present exists, and that the whole object of the vote would be rendered futile. Even were jthe amount in excess of the requirements, which never seems to have been suspected except by the sanguine Superintendent, would the expenditure of the excess in the vicinity of the Hope or the Lyell have contributed; one iota to the object which he, with some sophistry, suggests— the facilitating of supplies to the district of [nangahua ? We rather suspect it would simply silence for the moment, without even permanently satisfying, the ambition of the inhabitants of Nelson to acquire a share of a trade which the" physical features of the country have already determined must be carried on from West Coast ports. If such facilities cpuld possibly be /secured by any diversion of the funds from the works required on the western flea* board or central valleys of the Province, it would certainly be by the formation of a road to the Amuri, or by the Ahaura Pass, rather than in the locality for which it was so readily, and fortunately not finally, appropriated. But the matter, we are warranted in believing, is one upon which there need not now by much

argument or illustration. The opinion formed by Mr Fox with regard to the proposed diversion of, the fund, or by whatever name it may be called, must be considerably misrepresented if it is not an opinion entirely opposed to the Superintendent's suggestion. That opinion, we have little doubt, will be confirmed before the Premier exhausts his examination of the Grey and Buller Valleys, their resources and requirements; and as the expenditure is one for which the General Government is directly responsible, there should be some assurance felt that- the locality of the outlay will not be determined by any elastic or imaginary- boundary line, but by the absolute necessities of the case, and according to the unquestionable intentions of the Legislature.