NELSON PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1200, 3 June 1872, Page 2

NELSON PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Nelson, May 30. The reports of Provincial Council proceedings and the extracts from Council papers which your correspondent-for-warded by the Oraeo, were intended to be what Handy Andy would call a p>st script— that is to say, they were intended to be added to a letter, but were written before the letter to which they were intended to be added. And^ having attained more than even the dimensions and im-' portance of a postcript to a lady's letter, they were forwarded perse, the letter itself, as is occasionally the case with the Prince of Denmark, in the play of ".Hamlet," being omitted from the programme. This was so, for the simple reason that in the so-called postscript there was a plethora ■■■ of Provincial Council proceedings, exceeding probably the capacity of your "space," and the patience of your readers. For the 1 sake* of the continuity of narrative, however, ] I now send you the letter' as a postscript to tbe presscript which was meant to pass as a postcipt arid didn't. The narrative, thus continued relates to the week, ending March 25. : On the first secular evening of the said week, it was expected that a crude motion which had been tabled *by Mr O'Conor, as to ths separation of the South- West Gold Fields, from Nelson, would come up for discussion, but the other Gold Melds members were shy both of its sentiment and its'dictibn, and at their solicitation it was postponed,' modified without much improvement in its phraseology, and .was. not fully debated . until the Monday following. .On -that evening also the Provincial Solicitor moved the second .reading of a Bill intended to achieve what infidel members of the Council declared to be an impossibility — namely. " the management of the rivers of the Province "—the said '■ infidels, and especially those ; from the West Coast, believing the rivers of that part of the Province, at least, to 'be utterly and hopelessly unmanageable by any legislative enactment that could ba invented. The management meant, however, is a management of a limited character, such as may be useful, in some parts of the Province, -but- which is scarcely attainable, I fear, in relation to true mountain torrents. The Bill is based upon an Act already in force in Hawke's Bay and Marlborough, and also introduced, if I mistake not, into Canter-: bury and Otago; but of its practical working in these provinces, no information was vouchsafed by the Provincial Solicitor, arid the second reading was postponed. What he did explain was simply that the Act which it. was proposed to adopt provided for the constitution of local Boards with powers to levy rates for the preservation of river banks, and that the rates were divided into three classes. The 'first had reference to the lands exposed to actual damage, the se r cond to those which suffered in a minor degree, and the third to those that were not affected by the rivers. The rates in the first class were double those in No. 2, No. 2 half those in No. 1, and in No. 3 one-quarter of those in No. 1, but before the Act could be brought into_pperation "it was necessaryTEat a plefttiori should be signed to that effect by a number- of residents representing three-quarters of the acreage in the district to be , brought under its provisions. For his own part he objected to thai part of it which required that the owners of property not affected by floods should be rated, but the Bill must be adopted in its entirety or not at all. It was on the" same evening that the Grey Valley Roads Bill was discussed, and referred to a : Select Committee, whose report I have already sent you. Another Select^Committee appointed was one to inquire into an expenditure by the Government of some L 250 in connection with Doran's: reef— an expenditure which is at least peculiar by the fact of its being unauthorised, and exhibiting a disposition to promote mining industry such as is rarely known 'to be exercised by the same Government on the West Coast. ..-..■,■ On Tuesday evening there was no busines on the paper except the consideration of the Estimates, but before they were re-committed, there was ' One of the liveliest discussions of the session— the more lively, perhaps, as it was impromptu and unanticipated! It was initiated by Mr Kynnersley, not altogether in due order, but nevertheless with f good purposp. A careful, comparison of the items on the Estimates enabled him to illustrate by figures the accuracy of the common conclusion that the Gold Fields contributed not only the full cost of their own adr ministration, but* also very considerably to the cost of departments and : public works in what he is pleased to speak of as the district of Blind Bay! ■ The other Gold Fields members, believing equally in the accuracy of the figures as quoted, and still believing in their general fairness, supplemented his statistics by strong expressions of opinion on the, subject. The Treasurer was' persistently silent until all the members from the Coast had expended their eloquence, and then made what the Nelson members consider a complete answer to the representations •on/the .part of the Gold Fields ;. but, though silent for the time, because the.rule,s of debate did not permit of reply, Gold Fields members were not convinced, nor have they been by a still more minute examination of the figures. The ingenuity of the Treasurer's contention that the Gold Fields should, forsooth,, pay threer i fourths of the government of the entire Province is more apparent than its ingenuousness, and if time permitted I believe that I' could quote from the : Estimates items which, though charged to the Gold Fields, are equally chargeable tothe settled districts, and would go a long way to increase Mr, Kynnersley's. calculation that the Gold Fields this year .lose liTOOO in the allocation of.Vthe expenditure. Of the yote of : L4(JOb v .for the Owen and Lyell'-road/ for instance; at ' least a half is fairly : chargeable to the settled districts^ from which' the cry forthat particular work comes, and to which its construction will . be j, by many degrees, most advantageous! ' You probably have, however,, by this time published both Mr , Kynnersley's 5 and the Treasurer's figures," and other opportunities will offer for i going more fully into ' comparisons' which, though, not .,inade. now ipr the, first, have, ,] been' made ' more' pointedly arid perti- 'i neritly than in any. .previous session, j With the object, apparently, 'of demon- i skating how much . the ; Gold Fluids were ]

the debtors of Nelson in/ times past, ! Mr "; Gribbs rno^ed for c imperative- returns of expenditure within and beyond the; Gold: Fields jaiiice 1866, but it""-wa> the cbnfess'ifrno"f the Government that such returns j were not available without much delay and expense, and had they been available it is needless .to 3ay that . they, .would .not have been accepted as "gospel truth" by the West Coast- jpdembers' Sinless their accuracy was assured by arbitrators, or even .by an intelligent jury, of twelve. On Wednesday and Thursday there was little diversity frbrn the discussion of the Estimates', except, a notice by Mr Reid: for an inquiry into " the present position; and condition of Westport, having regard especially to the security of the r -v. dents from further loss of property, and to any consideration which may in equity be due to; those persons whose freeholds -have been destroyed by the encroachments- of river or sea." This is^the- third occasion on; which a similar motion hasbeen made by the same, ( p;'oposer, but the Govern- , ment and the Council .have^ very properly perhaps, bee f n averse to' any recognition of ; their -liability. to give compensation. The proposer, however,: contends fora consideration, of the . question, n.ot as a question of coriipehsatioii' due by right, but as a question of giying freely to the residents of Westport sbmetlr lg in the shape of an equivalent for the sita of a' i township which was]origina\ly ill-selected, . and which has since ' been greatly destroyed by a disaster exceptional in its character and dimensions. . With the exception of the items which are, with more or less justice, debited to the gold jjfields; Jthe, consideration ;tyfc.theEstimates is now nearly completed. A shoriT summary of some of the" points raised in the course of; their progress through committee may be conveniently made the subject of another letter; ■-. v ;