THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1310, 10 October 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1872.

Several hours for several evenings were occupied in the House of Representatives, while the Stafford Ministry were yet in office, with the discussion of a proposal made by. Mr Macandrew, and having a very direct bearing upon these and other Gold Fields. Mr Macandrew's proposal was that, of the sum available for water supply works on Gold Fields, LIOO,OOO should be placed at the disposal of the Provincial Legislature of Otago, Buch amount to bo charged against Provincial revenue. Mr Macandrew, in the remarks by which he prefaced his proposal, said what ii in this part of the Colony, probably in common with all other parts, accepted as a serious truism— there was, he said, " a great deal too' much talking about the Gold Fields; what was wanted was immediate, active, and energetic action." Mr Macandrew is certainly to be credited with a thorough belief in what he thus said, t for his motion represented some energetic action on his part, and on behalf of his own Province. The little talk in which he indulged on the occasion was alio fairly representative of the resources and probable future of Otago, and of his wishes that the development of these, and 'the magnificence of that future, would not be impeded by the House acting "like the dog in the manger." Considering the number of other parts of tho Colony whose resources deserve development, the House did not, however, exactly see the propriety of Otago having the first and largest pickings off the bone, and the fund remains available for such distribution throughout the Colony as the members of the Legislature may at some distant day devise. Mr Macandrew'a motion was not carried, the grounds given by the Government for opposing it being — notwithstanding their earlier affirmations daring the session— that "they could not divest themselves of the responsibility of controlling the final application of the sums authorised to be raised under the Immigration and Public Works Act." Upon other and equally cogent grounds the motion was opposed by three out of the four West Coast members. Mr Tribe, for instance, said "he would be sorry to see the money handed over to other authorities, irresponsible to that House, and squandered by them. If it was right to give a portion of the money to be expended by the Provincial Council, by the same argument it would be right that the Road Boards and other bodies should have a portion of the money to expend. If that course were adopted, the costs and complications would be increased, no work would be done, and the vote would be rendered valueless. But, if the money was to be given to other bodies to expend, instead of being expended by the House, he could not by any means see why onethird of the vote should go to the Province of Otago. It did hot contain onethird of the miners in the country, nor did it export one-third 'of the gold of the Colony." Mr Tribe continued by saying that he thought it would be well if the regulations were extended in principle. A subsidy of one-third was scarcely large enough in the case of many undertakings, and he thought it would be well if a little more discretion were left to tho Government. The member for the Grey Valley, judging by the report of his speech) was not so dissatisfied with the regulations as vraa Mr Tribe— he was, in fact, somewhat satisfied with them; and he held to the principle upon whioh the Government had gone. 'Where the conitrnotion of a large dam or '

reservoir for storing water was required, 90 that companies could take their water from-it, he thought it would be sound policy for the Government to undertake the work ; but for the Colony to hand over to the Provincial Legislatures large Bums of money, or for the Government to hastily enter upon works of the kind, would be so dangerous a proceeding that the House would not be justified in giving its assent. The discussion, the tenor of which we thus indicate, had not proceeded far until by another member, Mr Sheehan, an amendment was proposed to Mr Macandrew's motion, to this effect :— 11 That the sum provided by law for water supply on gold fields, excepting a sum of £50,000 to be held in reserve for new gold fields, should be allocated amongst the gold-producing Provinces and the County Of Westland, upon the basis of mining population, and that the sums allocated should be handed to the chief local authorities for expenditure upon water works, to be approved by the General Government, and upon such conditions as will insure that the money Bhall be expended only on approved works." One of the first speakers to follow the mover of this amendment was Mr Yogel, and he being the man of the present, as he is likely to be the man of the future, we quote his remarks at some length. They indicate the opinions of one who is likely to have as much influence upon the final settlement of the matter as any one else in tho Colony : — He (Mr Yogel) did not intend to vote for the resolution proposed by Mr Macandrew, for the reason that it provided for the unconditional handing over of £100,000 Jo be expended by the Provincial Government. At the same time he was not blind to the fact that this matter did urgently require to be dealt with, and, not to put too fine a point upon it, the Legislature had not yet arrived at any satisfactory solution of the question as to the best mode for expending the money set apart under the Public Works and Immigration Act for expenditure upon gold fields. He thought, upon the whole, the proposal. of last year did not and would not work with a good result, for so far as he was aware— he did not profess to have a very intimate acquaintance with the applications made— a great many of the application. 1 ) were not by associations entering upon works and starting undertakings, but by associations which had already exhausted their private powers of borrowing. They had granted mortgages upon their property, and asked the -.Government to grant them assistance they wero not able to obtain from other sources. In his opinion, the General Government would not be able to deal with this question in so thoroughly a, satisfactory manner as was desirable, unless a Gold Mining department were established, a department that would take the management out of the hands of the Provinces. Meantime, he was inclined to believe that the course proposed in ihe amendment of tho honorable member for Rodney would as satisfactorily solve the question as regarded the expenditure of the L 300.000 as any other. Should the Provincial authorities consent to co-operate, recommendations would come from them to the General Government, who would have the power of approving or not approving of works proposed ; and bo far as he understood the amendment, tnere would be, or should be, if tho resolution were carried out, ample care taken to prevent the money being expended upon any other purpose than that intended by the Legislature. That being the understanding, and presuming that the honorable member for Rodney would follow up his action by legislation, he would support the amendment. By Mr White, who was indisposed on the occasion, yet anxious that Jthere should be full discussion ot the matter, an adjournment was proposed, but that was not agreed to. He was opposed both to the original resolution and the amendment, and Mr Harrison's feeling was the same. He could conceive that it was quite possible there might be gold fields in the Colony which more than any other 3 required assistance from the Government, the population on which at present was comparatively small; and if the basisproposed by the honorable member for Rodney were adopted, those districts would be debarred from getting more than an extremely small share of the money, while they really required a large share. By the fourth member for the Coast, a motion was made in favor of dividing Mr Sheehan's, and another for adjournment, but both were sans cerenvonie negatived ; and ultimately the whole discussion ended in what Mr Macandrew began by deprecating — in talk, and nothing better than talk ; both Mr Macandrew's resolutions, and Mr Sheehan's amendment, having been rejected. As the last speaker during the debate expressed himself, it was thought best to leave it to the Government to indicate a scheme. Let us hope that the question is not, therefore, according to the simpler language of another speaker, once more " hung up,"