THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1572.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1293, 20 September 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1572.

The late Colonial Treasurer, during the debate at" the conclusion of which he found his " occupation gone," must have had considerable difficulty in deciding in what direction his faultß and failures lay. Ou tho one hand, and by a prominent member of the Opposition, he was accused of being " wanting in prudence and foresight, without patience or tenacity of purpose, without correct judgment, rashly speculative, ready himself to run all risks, equally ready to draw others into them, prepared to make ,any sacrifice for a striking or sensational result." This was the summary manner in which that, supremo concentration of mannerism, Sir David Monro, delivered himself upon the merits of a man whose shoe-strings, even could he bend his spine to the task, he is unworthy to tie. On the other hand, and by an equally prominent member of the Opposition, the Treasurer was treated to a description of his personal characteristics which went exactly in the opposite direction. According to this description, he | was a second Shylock— be bargained for his pound of flesh, and insisted upon having it according to his bond. This was Mr Curtis's estimate of MrVogel, when the enunciation of such, an estimate suited his purpose. Said Mr Curtis, speaking of our one great local subject : — "With regard to the railway at the Grey, which was to be constructed under the coal clauses of the Public Works and Immigration Act, shortly after the session, at the request of the Government, in the month of December, I came over here to endeavor to make arrangements for the security which was to be given as provided in tho Public Works Act in the case of coal mine railways. I negotiated for some time, mainly with the Colonial Treasurer, and I must say that he bargained with me as though this coal mine and the land adjacent wore my own private property, and that he was a private individual who wanted to construct a railway, and to screw as much as possible out of me. He bargained for quantities of coal to bo put upon the railway, as soon as it was made, at so much per ton, and he tried to screw me up to the highest possible quantity of coal. The hon. member is exceedingly ingenious at bargaining—occasionally coaxing and occasionally threatening — and ho intimated to me pretty plainly that if I did not come to some reasonable terms, the Government would act in a different way, and withdraw the land from the operation of the Gold Fields Act, and deal with it as a Government reserve." There may, according to Mr Curtis's conception, be some sarcasm contained in the reference to the Treasurer's capacity for " coaxingly " or "threateningly" bargaining according to the manner of mon of his nation, but there is infinitely more satire and severity in the statement by Mr Vbgel, as reported by Mr Curtis, that the Government would act in a different way from that in which lie (the Treasurer) was doincr, and withdraw the land again from the operation of tho Gold Fields Act. The pity is that the withdrawal was not as readily made as was the throat. The Government might then have proceeded with the preliminaries towards the construction of the railway and the development of the mine without that interference and delay which, describe it as Mr Curtis may, are due more to the Provincial Government than the superior Government with which it had to deal. The responsibility for this interference and delay Mr Curtis very ingeniously shifts upon the General Government, but those who are acquainted with the proceedings in the Nelson Council know that there is much more of ingenuity than of ingenuousness in his statement. Continuing ihe subject, and as reported in Hansard, he said ; — " Under those circumstances, I had very little choice but to accept the honorable member's hard terms, which were to supply a quantity of coal, which it is very doubtful if there would be a demand for, after the railway is completed. Of course it is to the interest of the Provincial Government to work this line to the best possible advantage, and to supply as much coal as they can possibly get out of the mine and as the public are prepared to take, bufc more than that we cannot do ; , and if we undertake to provide a quantity of coal to an extent which the public does not want, no advantage will result to anybody. However, I entered into this preliminary agreement on the understanding that it wculd be necessary that it should go before the Executive Council, and, through them, before the Provincial Council, before it would be finally decided upon. The other day the honorable the Besident Minister, in answer to a question, intimated something to the effect that I had not kept faith with the Government in xeference to that agreement, and that I bad not given that report of it to the Provincial Council which was likely to insure its acceptance. What I did was this,: As I found that the Executive Council were of opinion that the terms were more than we would be able to comply with, and that we could not calculate upon the demand for so large a quantity of coal at once, I sent the agreement down to tht Provincial Council in words like these : 'to which I request your assent, subject to any alteration in the details which you may think desirable.' I think that was ample recommendation. If I had asked the Council to swallow an agreement I had entered into, without looking at it, I do not think I would have been treating them properly, and I would be much more likely to get their assent by simply asking them to agree to the main conditions, leaving it open to them to make such alterations in detail as might appear to them desirable. I maintain, therefore, that in every respect I have kept faith with the Government in reference to the matter."

Now, how did Mr Curtis, in this matter, keep faith with the Government?

He sent the agreement down to the Council it is true, but a member of his j Executive also proposed the committee selected to deal with it. Upon that committee there were mombers of the Executive itself, and the chairman, by whom the report had to be drafted, was notably the one member in the Council whom they invariably selected to act in their interest and on their behalf. Moro than that, if there were any members who were attentive to the duty of attending that particular committee, it was the members of the Executive. Upon their suggestion chiefly, if not sololy, tho alterations made in tho agreement were inado, aud these alterations, we venture to say, represented much more tho wishes of the Superintendent than tho aggregate sentiment of the Council. It was, in fact, only on one of the last day 3of the session that the Committee's report was brought up, and although, it may be no compliment to the Councillors to say so, it was passed with vory little knowledge of its contents, and with consequently slight protest as to its recommendations. Ifc virtually represented the wishes of the Superintendent, and no one else ; the " sending down," the consultation in committee, the report, and its adoption, ■were only so many elements of an egregious sham. Yet Mr Curtis, throwing dust in [ the eyes of the Assembly, and pretending that he subordinated himself to the opinion of the Council, attributes to the General Government the whole blame of delay in the undertaking of a work to which he and his Executive were avowedly adverse. With an interest in public works which is much more sudden than Berious, and with a sincerity as to " what he wanted to come to," he said : — " What I want to come to is this ; that the Government, in consequence of some alterations the Provincial Council made, now say, 'We do not know that we shall accept the agreement,' and the consequence is, the whole thing is hung up, and a great colonial work — such -as 1 maintain the opening of this important coal mine is — is to be deferred, owing to petty details, as I consider them, of bargaining between the General and Provincial Governments." Quite so ; the late Government, with a desire to enter into petty details such as they are everywhere else accused of having nevsr once exhibited, "hang up" this "great colonial work," and Mr Curtis and hi 3 party are the proper persons, and the only persons willing, to carry it. "I maintain," said Mr Curtis, coming to his climax of earnestness and eloquence on the subject—"l maintain that that railway ought to be made. I maintain, in the first place, that the Government should not nave delayed one day in entering into that agreement with the Provincial Government, if they intended to make the railway at all ; that the railway should have been made at the time that the bargaining was going on, if a bargain was necessary ; but I think the whole matter might very well have been left open for subsequent arrangement between the two Governments." This, be it remembered, was said when the honorable gentleman was aiding in the attack upon the late Government, the success of which cost them their seats. Only a. few days afterwards, he was himself in power, and in tho position to " maintain that this railway should be made," and to make his own terms as to its making. But what do we read? Why, that Mr Stafford, after having been closoteel with Mr Curtis as his colleague, comes down to the country, and says that no new loans, no new railway contracts — in fact, no new questions whatever — would bo taken up, and he hoped the session would close in a month. All they asked for was a honeymoon, and, so long as they enjoyed the honey, a railway to the moon was as likely to be undertaken as that botween Greymouth and the Coal Mine. Less than a moon ago it was " maintained " that "that railway should be undertaken;" before another moon it' was hoped " that tho session would close." Romeo spake wisely when he said — " Swear not by the moon — the inconstant moon."