MINISTERIAL VISITS TO THE WEST COAST.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1279, 4 September 1872, Page 3

MINISTERIAL VISITS TO THE WEST COAST.

Mr' Tribe, the member for the Totara district, in his speech on Mr Stafford's resolutions, made the following reference to one of the complaints they contain : — The next grievance complained of is, that the members of the Government do not remain in Wellington all the year. That is a very sad thing in the eyes of , some honorable members who have j spoken ; but, as far as I am concerned, it is one of the principal recommendations of the Government, that they have taken the trouble to travel round districts in respect to which the House has no adequate means of forming any opinion. I can only say of my own district and the Nelson South-West Gold Fields, that the ignorance which prevailed last session iv respect to them was perfectly wonderful. One honorable member made out that the | mileage of the roads there was a hundred times greater than what was stated by another honorable momber, and both are prepared to Btand by their statements. The Hon. the Premier has paid a visit to ibat coast, and is able to judge for himself. The result of the admirable manner

in which tho public works have, been carried on by tho Provincial Government of Nelson is, that seven and not 700 miles of road have been constructed. The public voico is unanimous in declaring that the Provincial Governmentof Nelson has done nothing for that part of the Provincej and that tho moneys which ought to have been expended there have been used for tho advantage of Nelson itself and the small-farm villages which surround it. The General Government •invised aomo means to relieve this difficulty. Thoy provided a Road Board fund, which thoy thought would go to the outlying districts, but the Nelson Government very generously appropriated the money, and none of it was expended on the gold field. It was the same .with regard to the railway fund, «uid in the past year no portion of that fund would have been expended on the Nelson gold fields had it not been for the action of the honorable member for Grey Valley. The Hon. Mr Sewell, Mr Reeves, Dr Knight, the Premier, and other gentlemen have visited those gold fields, and in that district where the Government were more Btr.,ns;ly opposed at the general election than in any other part of the Colony, I am quite certain there wonld not now be found one opponent to the Government. I am snro that tho people of Westland wonld deeply regret any change in the adminifltration. Until of late, they were without any road which was at all traversable. I come from an important mining centro called Ros3, about 14 miles from tho metropolis of Westland, where wo have mines which are worked" to ~a great depth, and where even the sand on the beach is being worked. For years we have contributed a local venue of L9,000a year towards the revenue of the County, besides our capitation allowance, land revenue, and dog, taxes, and yet the County Government have only constructed two miles of road which were fit for a dray to pass along. We sought fora water supply, and the County Government passed resolutions which were the germs of those the 1 General Government have subsequently adopted \ but the credit of the County Government was .so weak, that although three large companies^ representing L70 ? 000 or 180,000, were formed on the strength of those resolutions, they all fell to the ground. That portion of the country was considerably retrograding, although I believe that it is naturally the richest district in Ne^v Zealand, not in reference to goJd alone, for there are large quantities of timber i which only require railways to carry it to Uhe shipping, and population to cut it and jf it. I think the best thing is to leave Government in their seats, as they are affording us the means of carrying on our works satisfactorily, and J hope that we itedl^so krg: arterial water-supply-works constructed in the course of a short time.