COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTIONS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1362, 10 December 1872, Page 2

COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTIONS.

MR LAHMAN'S MEETING. The IJon. H. H. Lehman met luß constituents <in the large )ta\l at Gilmer's Hotel last night, for -the £$rpoae of explaining his political conduct during the last two years', while he acted as County Chairman, and again seeking the suffrages of the* electors. The great interest taken in this election was evidenced by the fact that, despite the inclemency cf the weather, the large hall was crowded to overflowing, and Mr Lahman's explanation was listened to with much attention. His Worship the Mayor occupied the chair, and, in introducing Mr Lahraan, asked for him that fair and impartial hearing which was always given by the Greymouth electors. ( The Hon. Mr Lahman was received with applause. He said— lt must bo gratifying to every candidate on the present occasion, more especially' to himself, to see the large amount of interest which was taken in this election, as shown by the large attendance that evening. He had. come before them for the purpose of explaining his political actions for the past two years, during ,the period he had tilled the County Chair. He thought it was hardly necessary to go further back than that, for the fact that he* was then re-elected showed that his previous actions bad , met with their approval. As he stated last week at the nomination, he was convinced that his political opponents had taken every opportunity to bias the minds of a great number of the electors by stating that he had not done his duty towards his constituents while he had been County Chairman. It was best to take the bull by the horns at once, and he would proceed to refute the accusations which had been made. In the first instance, he had been blamed that he was not in favor of having the Arnold road made. Looking at the result he thought it was almost absurd for him to try and convince his constituents that lie could so far forget, both his , rowa : .and their in} terests as to opposq , : the formation of this road, or anything'that was calculated to promote the welfare of Greymcuth. The construction of the Arnold Road was due to him and him alone. He would not deny that when the question was brought before the County Council, the members for the Grey District, and, indeed, the majority of the members of the Council, agreed to have the road constructed, but they must remember that it had already been resolved on six separate occasions to have that road made, and it was evident there must have been some reason why the work was never carried out. He would assert that it was simply owing to the fact that their member during the last session of the Council, had the good luck to fill the County Chair, that this road was made. It would be remembered that Mr Guinness got a motion passed for the construction of this road by payment in land only. There were at the time other roads and tracks in the Grey District to bo constructed, and in order to ascertaiu how far the land payment aystem would work, he in one case, called for tenders, but not a single tender was sent in, which showed plainly that no contractor in Westland was prepared to accept payment on such terms. During the next session he suggested to Mr Guinness to get a motion passed for the survey of this road, as without that he could not call for tenders. That was agreed to, and as soon as the survey was completed, he lost no time, not even a singleday,in calling for tenders. Evenafter the tenders were in there was a difficulty, inasmuch as the system was to be one of deferred payments, and it was question able if the contractors would be able to carry it out on that principle. He would mention that the tender which was accepted was much in excess of the estimate of the engineer by some hundreds, but he (Mr Lahman) promised to give him every facility to carry out the work. It was not every contractor who would wait for payment until the road was completed, but it was their member, in his capacity of County Chairman, who was enabled to give that contractor every facility to carry on his work. Afterwards, while in Wellington, he made it his particular business to try to induce the General Government to let the County have a portion of the money which was voted for Road Boards, and ho succeeded in obtaining one-half of Westland's share of that money for the construction of the Arnold road. He was then enabled to make the terms more easy for the contractor, by paying him L 3200 cash. He thought, afte,r that explanation, it would be madness to say that he in any shape whatever was against the making of the Arnold road. He had done all in his power to get it made, and had kept the promises he had made to the electors when returned. He claimed the credit of.having that road made, and it was done simply through their member having the luck to be County Chairman. Without that the road would not have been made to this day. He took it* iipon himself, without any assistance, to induce the General Government to/.take in hand the construction of the road between, Greymouth and the Omotumotu Creek, in connection with the Arnold road, and that he accomplished. Again he would say it was simply owing to the fact of their member being County Chairman that the Omotumotu Creek road was made, and no blame could be attached to him, as he had done everything in his power for the benefit of this district. He claimed some credit for the initiation of the proceedings which led to the .satisfactory result of the spending of General Government money on the Greymouth protective works, and also for having enabled the Borough Council to obtain a loan to carry ; these works on. He would appeal with Confidence to their worthy Chairman* if he had not, as County Chairman, greatly, assisted the Borough Council in carrying out what had been accomplished, jpte had no Hesitation- in saying that while in Hokitika he had done everything in His power to induce Mr Fox and Mr Reeves to accede to the demand made upon them by the Greymouth Borough Council ; for it should not be forgotten that these gentlemen did something that they had no right to do, and which afterwards required an Act of Parliament to validate during the next session. He again took credit to himself for the action he took in the matter, and materially advanced the best interests of his constituents. He had also been told that he did not support to the utmost of

his power, in point of fact, that he opposed, the granting of a portion of the coal reserve to the Borough of Greymouth. Such a statement was utterly unfounded. His predecessor, Mr Hops, before leaving office, applied to the General Government to have the coal reserve vested in the Corporation of the County of Westland, and it was only after he (Mr Lahman) had been in office four or five weeks, Jhat he received a reply, to the effect that the Government thought proper that the reserve should be vested partly in the Borough of Greymouth, and partly in the Corporation of the County of Westland. He had never raised the slightest objection to having tha6 carried out. His answer to the Government was to the effect that he was exceedingly glad the General Government had resolved upon endowing the Borough Council of Greyraouth with 2000 acres of the Coal Reserve, and he even went so far as to suggest that the portion of the reserve intended for Greymouth should be vested in the Borough Council ; and further, that that body should have the power to dispose of the land, for the purpose of building protective works for the town. He had always advocated that the revenue to be derived from that reserve should be spent for the improvement of the navigation of the Grey River, ?as that^was the original intention for which the reserve was set aside. (Applause.) But it must be remembered that after the passing of the Westland Waste Lands Act of 1869, all the reserves made hitherto fell back to the Governor, and he had power to deal with these reserves as he thought proper. When the Borough CouDcil asked for the loan for protective works, the General Government asked for some security in addition to the Greymouth wharfage and tonnage dues, in fact that this coal reserve should be secured to them for repayment of the money advanced. It gave him much trouble to induce the County Council to accede to this, and could only get tfce members to go so far as to say that the reserve should be given as security for loans to be advanced to Greymouth and Hokitika. Although he strived hard, this was all he could get out of them. In the bejjinning of this year, he received half a dozen telegrams from Mr Reeves, then Resident Minister for the Middle Island, reminding him of his promise that this reserve should be handed over as security for the loan. He agiin brought the matter before the County Council, but it was again strongly opposed by Messrs Button and Hoos, who threw every obstacle in the way, unless Hokitika should share in the benefits of the reserve, but after much trouble he succeeded in having the motion passed in accordance with the wishes of the Mi&ister for the Middle Island. When he went to Wellington he found that the Validation Act had passed the Assembly without the insertion of a clause asking for this additional security, and all that was taken was the security of the Greymouth wharfage rates. In stating these facts he only wished to prove that the accusation which had been brought against him was unfounded, and could only have been made by persons ignorant of the facts as he had explained them. He wished further to state, that while he was in Wellington the Mayor of Greymouth sent him a telegram asking him to endeavor to obtain mail communication with Reef ton by coach instead of by horse. The tenders sent in showed that the additional cost of conveying the mails by coach would beL2SO. He interested himself in the matter, waited on the Colonial Treasurer, and succeeded in inducing him to accept the coach tender, which would give the residents in the Grey District a mail service every other day to Reef ton \ by a four-horse coach, instead of by the ordinary mailman. (Applause.) Although it wa3 not pleasant to blow one's own trumpet, he repeated these facts in order to show that he had never neglected to do everything in his power for the advancement of the interests of the town of Greymoutlj. (Applause.) At the nomination, grave complaints were made with regard to the nonpayment of subsidies to the Grey River Hospital, and on that occasion the County Chairman got more than "his due of the blame. He stated at the time, and perhaps it was not much in his fay.or, without explanations, that he was not aware that so much money was due to the Hospital. But perhaps gentlemen would recollect the facts that since the Council broke up he had been absent in Wellington, and during his absence, Mr Button was authorised to do all that he (the Chairman) was empowered to do. After he returned from Wellington he was very ill indeed, not having left his room for about a fortnight, and then only one week elapsed before he came to Greymouth, and surely it was nothing so very unusual that he had not looked into this matter. Since he had received the rebuke from his colleagues he had communicated with the County Treasurer, asking what vouchers were in the Treasury for the Hospital, and what applications had been made to him in order to induce payment of subsidies due.' He held the telegraphic answer in his hand, which stated that the ouly vouchers in the Treasury were for the month^ of July, June, aid Ser« tember, a"mburitirig in'«'ali to L 240, and the only request for payment wjs contained in the letter of the lion, treasurer of the Hospital, dated the 32th November, in which he simply said, " Hope soon to receive from you payment of these subsidies." If the Committee had really been so hard pushed as they were represented, would they not, he asked, have written in a more pressing manner for the money due them ? During other years he frequently had the honor of receiving a letter from the secretary or treasurer of the Hospital, requesting him to see that the payments which were due were made, and he had always done his best to comply with their wishes. It seemed to him that this, case of the Hospital had been made up for the purposes of this election, in order that blame might be attached to him. ( Hisses. ) . Well, he would repeat the statement, as why could not a few lines be sent to him, as had been done in years past, requesting Mm to see that these vouchers were paid I—(Applause.)1 — (Applause.) He hoped they would agree with him that on this subject the accusation brought against him had very little foundation. On the evening before the nomination he received a deputation from the Grey River Hospital Committee, and explained to tliese. gentlemen* how the County was placed financially, ■ but he gaye them a promise that he would make it his particular business to see that the Hospital subsidies should not be allowed to lapse, and that the vouchers should be made out

before the year expired. That was all he could do under existing circumstances. — (Applause.) Up to the 31st December the Hospital Committee would have to receive as subsidies L4oi), and LI 00 for the female ward. Some of the other candidates had made capital out of the construction of the main road from Mafsden to Greymouth, but he would read to them an extract from a letter dated the 16 th November, which he had received from tho Eton. John Hall, which settled the question. The letter said : — " As the Government are desirous of taking advantage of the present favorable season for making the road from Greymouth to Marsden, via Sawyer's Creek, I have the honor to inform you that they are prepared to commence the work immediately if it; meet the approval of the County Council, and to request that you will be good enough to inform me of the wishes of the Council in reference thereto." Already there was a resolution of the County Council in existence which he had sent to Wellington, to the effect that the road should be made by this route, and it was not necessary that the next County Council should be asked to sanction it, so that no delay would take place. It .was now definitely settled that the road should come by Sawyer's Creek, for several reasons— thao it was desired by the majority of the residents, and that it was not only the shortest but the cheapest route ; and it would, no doubt, be commenced by the General Government at once. (Applause.) At the time he undertook the duties of Chairman, the liabilities of the County were L 22,000. By one of the members for Hokitika they were stated to be only L4OOO, but that amount they owed the General Government alone, and the total was as he had said, according to well authenticated figures (which he quoted.) To provide for such liabilities, and to carry on the work of the County, required all his attention, and wh«n it was remembered that he had to encounter all the hostility of the Hokitika Press on account of his having knocked in the head a printing contract by which the County had thrown away LSOO or L6OO a year, they could well imagine that his " billet" was anything but an agreeable one. His first effort was to make reductions whereever these were possible. He began by showing that he was in earnest in reducing departmental expenses by reducing the Chairman's salary one hundred pounds per year, and in six months he had reduced the departmental expenses by L 2900. Not only that, but by judicions management he had succeeded in inducing the General Government to advance money on the so-called assets consisting of their share in the Sinking Fund. Owing to the visit of the Governor, and the subsequent visit of the Minister of Justice, Mr Sewell, he was enabled to obtain an advance on their share of the Sinking Fund amounting to LTSOO, and when the Council met again he came before them with a statement showing that all their debts had been reduced except about LSOOO. All his efforts during the first session were., however, frustrated in the second session simply through the circumstance that Mr Keid, one of the members for Hokitika, had left for Wellington, and that the former County Chairman, Mir Hoos, took his place. From that very date Ins troubles began.— (Laughter.) He (Mr Lahnian) always endeavored to reduce expenses, but this gentleman and others thought it right to launch into extravagance, and so it came to pass that the expenditure was, after the first six months, increased to the original amount: As he had often said,* the County coulci have well afforded to pay to keep Mr Reid in the Council, and to keep Mr Hoos out. He had never omitted to caution the Council to be economical, but, if they examined the Estimates, they would find that the Council invariably voted in excess of the revenue, so that it was really left to him to exercise more power than he should have been called upon to exercise. In spite o£ all this, in three months after lie took office, and up to the end of last year, rhe Treasury was able to meet every reasonable demand made. Till that time they had always a balance in their favor. But, at the beginning of this year, the General Government, without any notice whatever,;gave orders to the Collector of Customs to impound a large amount of their local revenue, the gold duty— an amount of L 3400, originating in a debt dating from 1867. During his term of office he had never received a single penny from the Colonial Treasury — all had been received by his predecessor. He had simply to content himself with the local revenue, and, while exercising due economy, that revenue had, up to the present six months, always kept up to about L 3500 per month. All arrangements were based on- that calculation, and he appealed to any business man present whether it was not perfectly judicious to do so. But during these six months a great exodus took placs — so much so that the first three months showed a decrease of LIOOO per month, and with a falling off to the extent of LSOOO, it was not to be , wondered that the County Treasury should not be in a position to pay every demand. The revenue for three months had amounted only to LB4OO, insfaad of Lll.OOO ; the revenue for the past two months he was not in a position to state. The deficiency, however, was i;he result of circumstances over which they had no control, and was plainly due to no want of caution on the part of the Chairman or the Council. He wished to explain one other point. Great stress had been laid upon thejFact that he, as Chairman, had endeavored- to prevent the construction of what was known as the loop-line of road. He had done so, and for very good reasons. He had stated— and time had shown that he was rightthat that road was the most useless that could be constructed. It was a road made without his consent, and without the consent of the County Council. It was simply made in consequence of tfyethen Minister of Public Works, imagining that it might probably benefit direct intercourse between Canterbury and the Grey Valley, but to think that the road t could effect that was simply absurd. The. road' had" now been open for about five months, and according to the receipts of a' toll which had been established more as a check than anything else, it was found that the whole revenue for three months had amounted to L 2 some odd shillings.— (Laughter.) When he. added that this amount of toll was paid solely by the owner of a baker's "trap" from the Waimea, they would be able to form some idea as to the use of this piece of road. Not only was it made at a coat of L3OOO. but they had to main*

tain it, and the extent of the probable traffic upon the road was indicated by the fact that the contractor undertook its maintenance . for LI OO per annum. It was, in short, a road which never would be of any use except to persona proceeding from Waimea to Canterbury, and who could do so as easily by another route. What he had said about this road was now proved to be the fact, and lie pointed out that, when he made his objections, he did so against his own private interests, ho being part owner of 200 acres of land through which the road passed ; he had merely done his duty as Chairman, knowing full well that the money would be thrown away* Heclaimed credit also for his exertions iii urging the adoption of the resolution! come to, that their share of the Middle Island Railway Fund should be expended at one time— that was to say, that the road from Boss to Greymouth should be made at once. That this had not been carried out was wholly owing to the fact that the cost of the proposed 40 miles of road, calculated at L 40 ,000, had amounted to nearer L 60 ,000, in consequence of the dearness and scarcity of labor in Westland, and the circumstance of the question of compensation, in connection with the formation of the Marsden and Greymouth road, being raised by the- tramway proprietors, Messrs Kilgour, Perotti, and Kennedy. With regard to this question of tramway compensation, he for one considered that the tramway owners had an equitable claim for compensation, according to regulations agreed to by the Council, but not to such an extent as they themselves thought. In order to satisfy these claims, he, with Mr Button and others, had brought forward a plan for paying the owners in land, with the proviso that the Governor's«assent should, be obtained. The owners of two tramways, the Hau-hau and Kanieri, had . accepted the somewhat liberal offer of the Councilseven years interest at .the rate of 8 per cent on the capital expended ; but through the influence of another tramway owner, Mr Klein, others did not think fit \to accept the offer, and the whole matter fell through. Since then the principal owner of the Hokitika and Greymouth tramway had been to Wellington, but the answer which he received from the General Go^ vernment was simply that they were not responsible— that their claim was against the County ;and he (Mr Lahman) thought the County was bound to give equitable compensation in the only form available — in land, of which they had still a. couple of mil'ions of acres. Referring to expenditure in the Grey district during the past two years, he said the County had in that time spent Id 0,800 Jn roads, independent of the General Government, and, in connection with these matters, he made favorable mention of tke name of the member for Paroa, Mr Durigan, who, though troublesome enough to him, had never left a stone unturned in his desire to benefit the district which he represented. Altogether, and during the past four or five years, the much abused County of Westland had spent not less than L 60,000 on roadmaking out of its own "revenue, and had now, apart from General Government works, about 110 miles of roads and tracks constructed, and out of that the Grey district had about 33 miles, at a cost of L 22,500. He asked them to conpare that with what had been' done throughout the entire West Coast of the neighboring Province. A false impression had always prevailed as to the f revenue and expenditure in this district, and he would rather leave the subject alone, were it not that his ; veracity in the matter had been previously questioned. All they had received from the Grey district for 23 months was— gold duty, L 793 4; and gold fields revenue; ,L 8849; together, L 16,784; these, however, being . exclusive of gold fields revenue from Greenstone and the proceeds of land sales ,* and the departruentaL expenditure during the same period had exceeded that amount. This applied only to tho past two years, previous to which the revenue had exceeded the expenditure, the County having then the benefit of the" Consolidated Revenue, consisting principally of Customs duties. The present district expenditure, he feared, could scarcely be reduced. The police force consisted of seven officers of all grades, and he was informed that, for the safety of the district, it was desirable to maintain the force intact. (Mr Lahman continued by referring to other departmental expenses, of which he" spoke more fully in a second speech.) From what he had described — from the impounding and reduction of their revenue — the County was undoubtedly in embarrassing circumstances, and to aggravate these — to give the 1 ' finishing stroke "—Mr White, the member for Hokitika, had, as they were aware, carried a measure reducing the gold duty 6d per ounce. It was a matter of astonishment to him how a member by whom the circumstances of - the County must be known could endeavor to reduce the only local revenue upon which they could with any certainty rely. . He (Mr Lahman) had come in contact with a good number of miners, and he never yet heard a miner complain of the gold duty/ (Hear, hear.) When it was considered that the average yield of gold for the individual miner was not more than forty ounces per annum— not more, perhaps, than I half an ounce per week— and that the saving was, therefore, only about three* pence per week, he thought that some - other lightening of taxation might have been more wisely selected. As stated by several miners with whom he had spoken, the saving was. really not equal tc£ the cost of a "nobbier." He remembered that in Victoria the argument against the reduction was that the individual miner would not reap the advantage, but that it would be principally felt by companies and the banks. He believed that that would prove to be very much the case here, ami the loss to the revenue of the County was calculated to embarrass it more tha^i anything else. When in Wellington he had left nothing undone to induce the General Government to compensate the County for the loss which it would thus incur, but he was met by Mr Yogel asking him how he (Mr Yogel) could possibly . go before the Assembly for an extra." allowance for Westland when one of their own members had done, all he could to reduce the local revenue. Prom the speeches of this member, he (Mr Lahman) discovered that he would not rest until he had abolished all the sources of the County's revenue. As it was, he had simply succeeded- in dealing a death-blow to se^goyernment, and popular favorite though he might be,

or the "Hokitika pet" as he was called, he (Mr Lahman) failed to Bee that Mr White had ever done anything to benefit the County of Westland. There was a class of representatives who made themselves conspicuous on party questions— whose efforts were to make or unmake Governments— and Mr Whit© and other representatives from the Coast must apparently be included in that class. Such a community as theirs, in their present circumstances, could not afford to send members to the Assembly for that purpose, or for any other purpose than representing the interests of the district. (Hear, hear.) He had expressed the same sentiments to these gentlemen — he had told them plainly how necessary it was to watch and promote the interests of the County ; but they had preferred to endeavor to oust one Ministry, or to bring another in. — (Hear, hear.) With their members of one mind, they might have been successful in getting a good deal done, but the truth was that their opinions never weighed in the scale, because what two were for, other two were against He would give Mr Harrison credit for at 'all times endeavoring to do his best for the town and district of Grey mouth j he had had opportunities of ascertaining that. On the other hand he doubted if he always adopted the best course of arriving at his object. Much might have been done by him and by other members for the West Coast, had they wisely and warmly exercised their influence to attain practical benefits instead of confining themselves simply to party questions. Mr Lahman concluded his address by inviting the electors to question him on any matters pertaining to the County, and a few questions were put and answered. He subsequently addressed the meeting afresh, on the subject; of departmental reductions which he proposed, and he read a telegram from the Premier, For continuation of News, tee Uh page.)

intimating that the Government would undertake half the cost of tho maintenance of the Hokitika and Chfistchurch ro*d. The report of his aos wers to questions and his concluding remarks we must hold over until to-morrow. Mr E. B. Fox moved, and Mr D. Maclean seconded, an affirmation that Mr Lahmanis a fit and proper person to represent tho constituency in the Council, and it was assented to by a number of those present holding up their hands, while none dissented, and the proceedings terminated with a vote of thanks to tho Mayor.

nnder-their miner's rights are entitled to vote. ]I am hot sure of the number, but they number strongly, and will, very pro bably, if they can be sufficiently schooled in the mysteries of tho ballot-paper, sway the result most materially. Unfortunately for Mr Barff, a year or two ago he evinced urimistakeable hostility to the Celestial raco, by refusing to drink at a bar into which two of them had penetrated. At the time the matter was thought sufficiently ridiculous to find its way in tho shape of a cartoon into the comic paper then existing, the Tomahaiok, and these are to be reproduced by photography to influence the Mongolian mind. There aro many other subjects to touch on, but as steamers and coaches will not wait for scribblers, I must rather abruptly conclude.