NELSON PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1213, 19 June 1872, Page 2

NELSON PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT;] Neison, June 10. Nearly a week has been exhausted, though by no means wasted', in the discussion and decision of a matter which concerns more the honor and the purity of the Council than the actual promotion of the current business of the country. This one subject has been allpbsprberit, discomposing the feelings of ' members, disorganising the business of the Couiicil, and throwing things generally out of gear; The subject is that of MrE.J. O'Conor's alleged conduct in purchasing for himself a large slice of town land at Westport which his constituents had by memorial asked to be given on easy terms to the losers by the sea encroachments ; which a Committee of the Council, iv deference to this memorial and departmental reports, had recommended as a new site for the town, and which they determined to reserve for sale, pending the final settlement of the question of its disposal. The gravamen of the complaint against Mr o'Coho.r lies not inihe circumstance of his buying land, but in the facts that he. was a sort of. honorary member of the said committee, that he was present during its deliberations, that he heard all the arrangements made, and, that, in consequence of his knowledge of these, and "notwithstanding Ms knowledge of the determination to reserve the land, lie slipped away to |he Land Office, and anticipated the action of the; Committee by purchasing some of the most valuable sections in the block . which it had been resolved to reserve. Such ; was the nature of the complaint, but as I do not desire to contribute any description of the circumstances which may be attributed to an individual and personal view of the matter, T prefer to quote from the reports of the proceedings a simple narra- ' tive.of the case as it progressed. It was on Tuesday, the 4th, that it was first, brought under the notice of the Council, and by Mr Kynnersley, as Chairman of the Westport Committee, He explained how it had been agreed that Mr O'Conor might be present at the meetings of the Committee, and give them 'the benefit of any evidence, and said— "The Committee met last week, and Mr O'Conor attended the meeting, and remained in the Committee-i oom during a portion of the proceedings. The Committee met again that day, all the members being present, and Mi O'Conor.- At the meeting it was determined to recommend the removal of the Government buildings to the upper part of the surveyed township of Westport, and some members of the Committee were' of opinion that sections at present. open for, selection should be distributed among those whose sections had been washed away;. Other members objected to this, but it was agreed that, at all events^ those sections should be withheld from. sale until. the Committee had reported. A resolution to the effect that the VVaste Land Board should until that time withhold from sale the sections in question was proposed, and unanimously agreed to. ; Mv -O'Conorj after that reso-

lution had been come to, left the Com-mittee-foonj. He (Mr Kynnersley), as Chairman of the Committee, immediately . wrote a letter to the Commissi6ner of CrOwn Lands, enclosing a copy of the resolution to which the Committee had agreed, and went with it himself to the Land Office, and gave it to the Commissioner. In the Land Office he found Mr O'Conor, ; and he had since ascertained that, while he was writing +he letter, Mr O'Gonor-had bought, at the upset-price, six cf the most valuable sections in the upper part of the town, for which he had paid LI 55 — sections which were adjacent to the site to which the Committee h»d agreed the. Government buildings should be removed to and which, in Mr O'Conor's presence, it had been resolved tp > withhold from sale. He fielt it to' be his duty to report what appeared to him to be very highly reprehensible conduct on the part of Mr O'Conor." ' ' " This statement did not altogether take the. Council by surprise, for the matter had leaked out id the course of the afternoon, but, according Ixr; his own subsequent confession, it dumbfoundered, Mr v O'Conor, and he knew not what he said. What ' he did say was that he was not in the Coniraittee-rboin when the' resolution spoken of was passed. However; it would . have made no difference. The sections, when open to one person, were open to another, and he took them believing that they would be taken up. He would be very happy to give them over at the upset price for the use of the Council. There was no heavier loser than himself in Westport, and if anyone weref to; take up these sections they would trench on his interest in the matter. If anyone .was to get any benefit, he thought he ought to get it, and he saw quite enough to satisfy him that, by taking up these sections, he would prevent others from doing so. He had, in fact, been in treaty for these sections for the last fortnight. There was a general expression of cbn> demnation of such conduct' as that'described by Mr Kynnersley, and a motion, proposed by Mr Donne, recording" the Council's "strong disapprobation," but an amendment that a full and fair inquiry should first be made was agreed to, and the following Committee of Inquiry was >» selected by lot :— -The Pro vincial '■: Soli- \ citor, Messru Collins, Guinness, Baig'ent, f Luckie, the Provincial Secretary^ and Mr " F.Kelling. ' ;... f In the short debate on its appointment * it was distinctly stated by members of the Westport Committee, and in contradict tibn of Mr O'Conor, that he was plfient : when the resolution to withdraw th^and was,assented -to, , if -not formally passed. The debate closed with this remark j.by Mr Kynnersley:— "The Council might not perhaps get through its business as quickly as those of other Provinces, and there might be considerable differences of opinion between the members from the West Coast and those; of the settled 'districts, but he hoped, and indeed felt convinced that there was one -subject on which they were all agreed, and that was to maintain, on the part of the Council, a very high standard of pure; upright, and honorable conduct." .\ The Committee sat daily until Friday, taking the evidence o| the Weatport Committee and officials, with all such evidence as Mr O'Conor cared to place; befprfr them \n any regular way j and on, that evening the Chairman, Mr Luckie, brought up the following report :-—- ■ , • 1. That it appears, that Mr Eugene Joseph O'Conor, one of the members of the Council for the Buller District, had, for some days prior to Tuesday, the 4th June, contemplated purchasing land in the upper part of the township. ... . f ' 2. That the Westport Sea Encroachment Committee met on Tuesday, the fourth day. of June, and between the hours of eleven and twelve noon of that day, after due deliberation, v resolved to immediately recommend the Waste Lands Board to withhold from sale all' sections open for sale in the said township, pending the decision, of the .said Committee as to the propriety of distributing such land among persons who; had "raftered loss of land from sea and river encroach.* ments. • ... v. . \" 3. That Mr O'Conor was in the Committef) Room during the whole of the deliberations ; on the said 4th June, and also: when thelfc Committee decided to recommend the with^ drawal of the land from sale ; and, considering that Mr O'Conor was present at these Committee meetings at his ,own re^ueat^and • to assist at the inquiry, your Committee have no reason to doubt that Mr O'Concr was well aware of the whole (proceedings of the said Westport Committee at the meeting held on the 4th June. „ : ..VjH. 4. That about noon on. the same day, and' after the closing of the sitting of thesai4 Westport Committee, and only a few minutes before the Chairman thereof ' had . - communicated to the Waste Lands Board ' the resolution of the said Committee, Mr O'Conor did purchase at . the' .Waste Lands Office six 'of the said town sections which the Committee had in his presence and hearing resolved should be withdrawn from sale with a view to being applied to public" pur; poses as aforesaid. 'j? ."*■.. All the evidence was subsequently read . in the Council, and Mr O'Conor made his defence. The most salient pqinta ' were, that he was not upon the Westport Committee at first, because he had refused in consequence of his being' personally interested in the question pi compensation to the sufferers .by? the sea en-' croachments ; that he afterwards, expressed a wish to be aided to it> when a question of a different nature was referred to the committee ; that he attended only . once, when requested to giv,e evidenced and when that was given immediately retired ; that his presence on Tuesday was due to his being in waiting upon another committee to which he had beep summoned, and to a paper having been lent him toiread in the room j that his attention was absorbed in what he was reading, and that he gave no attention to the proceedings of the committee}; j^hat he left the room immediately: upon the receipt of the telegram, mentioned in the evidence as having been given to him there; that it was the receipt Of this telegram which caused him immediately to proceed to the Bank, and from that to the Land Office, where' he bought itheisetf tions, the purohase of .which had becuji determined on the preceding Saturday ; that a monetary obstacle then intervened, to- remove which he had despatched a ' telegram on Monday morning, receiving the reply on Tuesday, in the Committee* room ; that those two telegrams and the surrounding circumstances, with letters and papers in connection with them, would clear him of all blame ; that these were at the disposal of the Council if they would appoint. two persons to < consider them as private and; confidential; but that he could not produce them publicly, to be used as the other evidence, without a breach of confidence and the exposure

of b : s own and another persons private affairs in a manner unwarranted even in this case. He also denied that he was in the room when the withdrawal of the land was agreed to, and said that, if he was in the room, he must have heard it, an intimately affecting himself, although he h A distirctly heard or noticed nothing else. With regard, to Mr O'Conor's statement, it may without hesitation be said, even by your coi respondent, that in several particulars he is parily contradicted .by thoroughly corroborated evidence. The evidence, as read, clearly shows that ho d'd not leave at once on receiving a telegram, and that he was present when it was resolved to withdraw the land. With reference to the private inqu : *.y by two persons which he proposed, the Committee and the Council had previously and unanimously agrexl that there could not be two courts of inquiry— one to state facts as it found them, and the other to give on opinion on facts which it kept concealed. There was only an adjournment of ten minutes after Mr O'Conor's statement, and, on re-assembling^ two motions were proposed and passed with as little remark as possible. As more fully indicating the decision of the Council, I may, however, conclude this summary of proceedings by reporting what was said. The Provincial Solicitor said it now devolved on him to perform a most painful and unpleasant duty in moving a resolution strongly reflecting on the character of one of the members. The occasion that had given rise to such a resolution was one that caused him the deepest regret, but having been requested to bring it forward he should fail in his duty were he to refuse to do so, and he felt sure that both the Council and the honorable member referred to would believe that he waß not actuated by any personal feeling or animosity in performing that duty. In making their report the Committee had purposely abstained from making any remark on the conduct of Mr O'Conor, and in moving a resolution which , he believed would he agreed to by every member, especially by those who had been on the Committee, he should preserve the same reticence. He would move : — That the facts nai rated in the Eeport of the Select Committee of this Council, appointed to take into consideration the action of one of its members in connection with the pflrchase of certain lands in the town of Wesfcport, and the evidence appended thereto, disclose a coarse of conduct on the part of one of the members for the Boiler (Mr Engene Joseph O'Conor), of a kind entirely unparalleled and unprecedented in the annals ofr the Council, highly derogatory to its character, and demanding its severest reprobation. Mr Kynnersley seconded the resolution. Mr Tarrant, as a member of the Westport Committee who -had not. been examined before the Committee of Inquiry, most fully concurred in the evidence that had been read. He could state most positively that Mr O'Conor was present when it was decided to recommend that the land should be withheld from sale, and that, sitting where he was, he must have heard every word that was said. The resolution war unanimously agreed . The Provincial Treasurer wished to refrain, from making any remarks on the (jopduct of a member who had caused so much pain and anxiety to every member of the. Council. The resolution to which they had just agreed contained a rebuke that could not be otherwise than most cutting to any man having the smallest particle of honor in his composition, but there was yet another step which he felt that the Council was called upon to take, namely, to exact material reparation from him who had so wronged the people of Westport, by securing for himself land that it was proposed to distribute amongst those who had been losers by the floods. It was quite possible, and indeed very likely, that Mr O'Conor had for some time contemplated the purchase of these sections, bat the whole weight of the ' charge him rested upon the soliiary circumstance that he was present when it was agreed to withdraw the land from sale. This had been proved by all the members of the Committee, and therefore it was clear that he left the room and purchased the sections, knowing full well that in a few minutes they would be reserved for equitable distribution among those who had suffered from the floods. He would therefore move, That a humble address be presented to his Excellency the Governor, by the Speaker of this Council, praying his Excellency to refuse the, tone 06 Crown Grants in respect to certain sections of land in the town of Westport numbered respectively 467, 468, 469, 47<1, 471, and 472, alleged to have been purchased by Eugene Joseph O'Conor, one of the members of this Council, on the 4th of Jane, 1872, under circumstances referred to in the foregoing resolution, and in the report of the Committee upon which that resolution is based. MrLuckie Becouded the motion. He said that it was with considerable pain that he had sat for the greater part of three days listening to evidence so distinct as that contained in the full notes thereof that had been read to the Council There was throughout the evidence given by these witnesses a concurrence which, though for years accustomed to hearing evidence offered, he rarely heard more complete as regarded the poiniing to ope inevitable conclusion. He did not Wish to refer to the matter further than to point to the powerful warrant contained in that evidence for the accuracy the statement of facts set forth in that report,, a statement which regard for strict truth and justice unquestionably demanded. The present resolution re* quired little to be said. The best sections proposed to be reserved for the benefit of sufferers from river and sea encroachments had. by the act of a member for Westport (Mr O'Oonor),. if he were permitted to possess them, been, in an nnworihy manner, altogether taken away from the Council's control. Whatever could be done should be done, to preserve lands of the Colony from grasping speculators, especially those who took an unwarrantable advantage of what was confidential information, to obtain for their own purposes lands which were intended to be reserved as a sacred trußt. The person who did such an act not only inflicted injustice on the country at large, but also on the very people who had rgpcsed trust in him as their representative and the preserver of their rights. The clear duty of the Council, he conceived, was to prevent a man from benefiting by his own wrongful act, and he therefore seconded the motion. The motion waß unanimoußly adopted, and thus ended what the Council, no doubt) with equal unanimity felt to be a most disagreeable duty.