A VOICE FROM THE AMURI.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1164, 22 April 1872, Page 4

A VOICE FROM THE AMURI.

The Amuri district in the Province of Nelson is. not often. the scene of public agitation, but we notice that, at Jast there is to be a meeting held " for. the purpose of discussing local grievances, and to consider the desirability of obtaining separation, and forming a Board of Works or a County." The Kaikoufa Herald, getting warm on the subject by anticipation, thus describes the situation : — !

The " last straw" in our case is the Huriinui Bridge. The bridge, which was erected at the joint expense of Canterbury and Nelson at a cost of about L6OOO, has for the past six months been impassable, owing to the approach having been washed away by a fresh hut spring. I , repair this damage is beyond the moans of the IWd Board, and the Nelson and Canterbury Governments refuse to contribute to its repairs. Thus we think ourselves very hardly used by the Nelson Government, as we contribute about LSOOO annually to the Provincial revenue, whereas the yearly expenditure within the district, is less than LJSOO. Nelson, utterly without resources ' herself, has lived upon the plunder of tbe outlying districts for the list twenty years. ,We all know bow she drove Marlborough into separation by unscrupulously appropriating hf r land fund, and ignoring her wants. The next orange she had to suck was the ( Amuri, whence for many years she has' obtained an enormous revenue from, land sales, treating her wants the while- as she had treated the wants of Marlborousrb. The next of her god-sends was the West Coast Gold Fields, since when she has lived right royally upon the plunder derived from that source. .'The West Coasc is in . a state of chronic discontent aiid has been so for years, and its separation from that horse-leech, Nelson, which has fattened upon Marlborough, Amuri, and the West Coast, thus materially retarding tf~eir progress, is a mere matter of time. The Nelson basin exports nbthing ; she can't, in fact, supply her own wants. She imports flour from Adelaide (or did), she imports cheese from Canterbury, and barley to make her beer from Marlboroogh. . Roads and other works nre executed' there, not because they are required in the: usual acceptance of the term, but merely to give employment to the impecunious, so called, farmers who would otherwise be compelled to leave the place. ' The philosophical literati of beer drinking Nelson are firm believers in the old adage anent making hay white the sun shines. It requires, however, no very great effort in the way of prognostication to predict that, ere a great while, Nelson will bse both the Amuri and the Gold Fields, when she will become the most beggarly Province in New Zealand, If it were not for the extraneous aid which, the Nelson basin receives in the shape of subsidies from the Amuri and the Gold Fields it would not maintain its present population. .At any rate the construction of the Foxhill Railway will be the means of what the Nelson people call " bringing, a .little money into the place."' Ten years hence Kelson will probably petition to be taken under the protecting wing of Marlborough, or the Amuri. .'•".... - ;