THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1225, 2 July 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1872.

The Nelson Provincial Council deserve the credit of having this year presented to the denizens of the Grey Valley a perfect horn of plenty. Their votes in the direction of promoting the prosperity of the Grey district form quite a bouquet of favors. These favors are both numerous and beautiful to behold— in the distance. There is such a unity, in point of necessity and propriety, between the trinity of tramway, road, and track which they have promised, and such an apparent determination on their part that no work shall have a preference over the other, that the inhabitants of the district begin almost to feel embarrassed by their sudden supply of riches. Ed il possible ! is the meaning, if not the actual words, of the popular exclamation. Can it be that we are to witness and enjoy the construe* tion of a tramway from Cobden to the coal-mine, of a road from the Arnold to the Ahaura, and of Jyet another road from i the Ahaura to the Amuri, at an aggregate cost of some sixteen thousand pounds, all within the space of one brief year, in one single district, and that district in the Province of Nelson 1 The inhabitants of the district, we have every confidence, have no ambition to be found faithless among the faithful ; they will gladly accept the proposed horn of plenty; but they would, if permitted, prefer to take it — with a grain of salt. Surveying the several schemes which have thus been promised, they are disposed, we do believe, to cultivate the sentiment which is commonly expressed in the quotation "How happy could I be with either, were t'other dear charmer away." They admire the bouquet presented to them, but fear to pluck the flowers, lest, in the plucking, their bloom be shed. They would prefer to permit the Nelson Government to work out their own de3tiny, and the destiny of the schemes which they have placed upon paper— upon that vast sheet of paper which, within the circle of Nelson administration, resembles so closely, in the character of its contents, the plane which is paved with good resolutions. We are not sure that this laissez faire system is, in common parlance, the correct thing. It can only be by an extraordinary effort— by an effort much beyond the ordinary ability and resources of the Government — that the three works referred to can be contemporaneously carried out. They must, perforce, choose one out of the three works as a work to which they will give a preference. And, in making that choice, it is only reasonable and fair that the wishes and the interests of the inhabitants of the district generally should be consulted. With regard to the contemplated tramway to the coal-mine, there has been little or no disposition to cavil. There has, perhaps, been less disposition in that direction than the circumstances would warrant. It is absolutely and im. perativety necessary that some measure 8

should be taken to promote an enterprise which, whether locally or colonially considered, is admitted to be of great pith and moment, and that consideration, combined with the absence of any movement towards constructing the proposed railway, has, perhaps, induced people to be less careful than they should have been in inquiring into the merits of the scheme, if scheme it can be called, which the Government have selected as a means of bringing to market the vast supply of coal available in the Brunner mine. There are, no doubt, objections to the Bchetne, and these were somewhat exhaustively stated in the Nelson Council at the time the vote was passed — such as the comparative worthlessness of wooden tramways for coal-carrying purposes, the expense of their maintenance and working, and the inadequate information obtained as to the probable cost of the original work, and the subsequent cost of keeping it in working "order. With the figures furnished in plain pounds, shillings, and pence, and upon reliable data, it might be found that there are no sustainable objections to the proposed tramway, but the decision as to its construction was arrived at in anticipation of the supply of the necessary facts, and, if the work is to proceed, it must proceed under suspicions and fears as to its ultimate success. The second scheme of the Government, which is of district, and much more than mere district interest, is the construction of a road connecting the Grey* Valley and the great reefing centre with the best sources of food supply in the country — the Amari downs and the Canterbury plains. The construction of such a road, contemplated from a West Coast point of view, would, undoubtedly, be preferable to all the extension and completion of roads from the miniature and comparatively miserable plains of Nelson towards the Inangahua, which have formed such prominent features of the Nelson Government policy, and which found such extraordinary favor among the humble stock-breeders of Blind Bay. No one acquainted with the necessities of the Western districts on the one hand, and with the abundance of available supplies in the Eastern district on the other hand, can venture to dispute the propriety of forming the proposed Amuri road, but it is a fair question whether the cost of its construction should be debited, as it will be, to the ,Gold Fields, and not partially be met by those on the eastern seaboard, who will be distinctly and directly benefited. As compared with either work — the construction of the coal-mine tramway or the formation of the Amuri road — there seem to be Btrong arguments in favor of a preference, in point of time, being given to the completion of the road of which two-thirds are now rapidly approaching completion — the road connecting Greymouth with the reefs. The reefs, it is true, will be comparatively accessible, so far as relates to the conveyance of goods, by the completion of the road from the junction of the Buller and Inangahua to lleef ton, but for many purposes the Grey Valley road is preferable, and we repeat only what has frequently been said when we say that, for the County Government on the one hand to make a road from the Omotumotu to the Arnold, and for the General Government en the other to make a road from Reef ton to the Ahaura— leaving a large hiatus between — is simply an aggravated lllustratration of " how not to do it." To the completion of that main trunk road the Nelson Government should extend their exertions in act as well as in spirit, and if they do so they ought not to depend solely upon the somewhat impracticable enactrnentproviding for thepayment of the work in land, but at once commence such portions of it as will inevitably fall to be paid out of the appropriations. To the capital and to the enterprise of the people of this part of the country is due, in a great measure, the development of the reefs, and, without making any invidious comparisons between one worK and another, they may fairly claim priority for a work which, if unconstructed, must prove to be a much missed' link. In Our humble opinion they not only may fairly claim that priority, but they should exert themselves t) do so ; and there endeth the moral of our remarks.