THE NELSON GOVERNMENT AND THE GREYMOUTH RAILWAY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1386, 9 January 1873, Page 2

THE NELSON GOVERNMENT AND THE GREYMOUTH RAILWAY.

[NELSON MAIL.] The delay that has occurred in establishing overland communication between the Brunner mine and the"inoathrof the Grey river appears to have attracted the attention of the JVcUington Independent, a journal that, togetherwith the (rre#jSiger Argus, in always ready when no morej^ < teresting theme for an article is at hrn&, . | to attack Mr Curtis. We have not yet | seen that number ; of the Independent which contains th^-Jast attack, but the . telegraph informs us that it is asserted that the Brunner Bailway is hung up by Mr Curtis's obstinacy. On what grounds this statement is made we are unable, . i after perusing the voluminous correspond- . ence that has taken place between the Superintendent and Mr Yogel on the. sub- ; ject, to discover., In the last session of , the Provincial Council there were placed ; before it draft articles of an agreement . between her Majesty and the , Superin- | tendent relative to aetting^apart as a coal *: reserve, a portion of land within a radius ; often miles from the mine, as a guwantee - 1 for interest and sulking fund on the ea- _ pital to be expended in the construction of a, railway from the mine .to- .Greymouth. These, with certain , modifications, were agreed to, among others that the cost of the line should not exceed L 26.250, and the Provincial Government, instead of being compelled to raise~2svQop tons in the first: year, and* an additional 5000 tons per year afterwords until the total annual yield had reached 50,000 tons, should not be bound to raise more than 15,000 tons the first year, and an additional. 3000 a year afterwards until the total annual yield had reached 30,0C0 tons. It now appeal ; however, that the estimated cost of the line has been extended froTn-1i26,250, the amount authorised by;law^ t&i1i54,400, being an average of abjcarfcg ; l^^i per mil% In addition to this, Mr Yogel objects w the alterations made by the Gonncil-asJtpJEhe minimum amount of coal to^ be jWßtod annually, and until this is restored>sSie quantity originally proposed by him, he, refuses to allow the line to be commence*!* To these objections Mr Curtis very sensibly replies, that the alterations made by the Council appear to be unimportant^ as the quantity of cjal to be carried by the railway i% more likely to be. regulated by the demand at the port, and the supply obtainable, than by any articles^! agreemeut, to which he adds that it iWuchsßrly' < be the interest of the ProvinciakGoarirn-* ment or of the lessees of the mine, whoever they might be, to sell as much coal as possible. Mr Curtis further I 'slates he is not prepared to move the Provincial Council to recede from the alterations they made in the details of the conditional agreement as, although they appear to be quite unimportant as regards the construction of the railway, they are in other respects judicious; The question at issue in all itd details is far too lengthy for us to enter upon at present, but the chief hitch appears to be that which we have mentioned above. The correspondence will, no dbubty be published in full in due time, and the public will then be- able to judge .for themselves to what extent our Wellington contemporary : is jdstrfied in attributing the " hanging-up'* of the railway to the' obstinacy of Mr Curtis. ■-.■;. The " obstinacy" of which complaint is made crops up, however, in another phase of the question, where, as we think we can show, it is not Mr Curtis that is: to be charged' with it. It will be remembered that in the last session of the- Council the following resolution was - agreed -to,: — ' 'That, in Order ,to. maintain and extend the trad*} of the^ Brunner Mine until a locomotive railway can be constructed, a wopd&n tramway should be laid down between the mine and the town of-Cobdeu, provided the cost does not exceed L 5000." Shortly after the rising of the Council, Mr C urtis wrote to the Geneial Government informing them of ->the resolution, that had been passed, and asking them, as the amount appropriated exceeded the estimated revenue, to advance the sum of LSOOO on the security of 5000 acres of land recently surveyed in the Inangahua, and then about to be offered for sale ab LI per acre. He at the same time urged upon them that it was important that the trade of the mine should not be allowed to languish while the railway was in course of. construction, arguing that the iucreased consumption to which the tramway would lead was calculated to ci^bi^a traffic of which the railway wou'g reaojihe advantages immediately on its being comT pleted. To this proposition Mr Yogel objected on the ground that it would lead to the expenditure of a considerable sum, as that mentioned would in his opinion not be sufficient for the completion of the work, and further expressed his conviction that it would "result in retarding the development of the mine because itisclearthat the Nelsen Government desire to construct the tramway on that bank of the Grey which is, according to the' information in the possession of the General Govern* .ment, the wrong one for. developing the mine to the best advantage." Wejnust ' admit that this is the first time that we ever heard of a proposition to connect a valuable coal-mme with the nearest "port, by the shortest and easiest route, being objected to on the ground that it * f might result in retarding the development of the mine." Mr Yogel evidently had in his mind at the time of writing the abovei^ extraordinary . sentence,; the ■- report of, Mesars Blackett and Hector, bpt he seems to have forgotten, as Mr Curtis points out in his reply, that the instructions to those gentlemen were not to confine themselves to enquiring into the beat means of developing .that portion of, the Brunner mine now being worked on the north bank of the Grey,"but to report "onthe best conree of a railway to connect the coal-mines on the Grey Eiver" (by which, is clearly meant thosb lwhiph exist on both sides of the river) ;" with a shipping port, with a view to pronvoting the public interests to the greatejtfrjextent, and to securing the greatest development of the coal-field, and the best paying line." The position taken up by Mr Yogel appears _ to. be that because Messrs Blackett and Hector have reported that the most favorable line for a railway to develop the Brunner, mine on both sides of the Grey would be on the south bank of the river, therefore a temporary line to connect that portion Of the mine now being worked on the northern ba nk with the port would retard the deVeiopment of the mine. . We confess t&lt his argument is not convincing. It seems, *

indeed, to have been prompted ratheft-bj a feeling of pique than by a deßire tc promote the welfare of the Province anc of the Colony. " Your Corincfl'has nci seen fit to accept in their entirety th( terms dictated by me, and, therefore, ] shall, take^ care not to afford them an opportunity of carrying their wishes intc effect," The following extract from Mi Curtis' letter in reply to Mr Vogel'j refusal to advance the small sum required for this work, will, we. are sure, meet with the approvaTof all who' read it, and for Mr Yogel's sake, as well as for that of the Province, we trust that he will see his r way. to reversing;. liia decision, and thus relieve himself of : the . charge of "obstinacy* to which Tie is exposing himself by the line of action he is pursuing in this matter. Mr Curtis says: — "I propose- that the^ tramway^ should be constructed : as a temporary means of keeping up and increasing, the supply of coal during the interval' which must in any case occur before a permanent railway is made, and it will be seen that I raise no question as to the decision at which the Government have arrived with reference to the route to be adopted for the perraanent work authorised by the General Assembly. It appears to me that the proposed tr&nl way would, at a comparatively small cost, and without risk to Colonial funds, -tend largely, to develop the mine: instead of. to retard its development as. the Government appears to think, upon ground I am unable to discover, it would do. I must again express my great rejgret at the determination at which the. Government have arrived, and an earnest hope that they will yet consent to take the matter into re-consideration."