THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1391, 15 January 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1873.

It is less with the intention of commenting on the subject, than with the purpose of quoting the opinions of contemporaries, that we again occupy this particular column with references to the Brunnei Coal-mine and the projected railway. Enough has been said to indicate local opinion pretty fully, and, as we believe, correctly ; and quotation has been made from, at least, one Nelson contemporary, indicating its opinion, based upon the representations of the Superintendent oi Nelson and his clerks Opportunity has not, liowever, been afforded us sooner foi the quotation of an article which has beet spoken of as having appeared in the Wellington Independent, although it did so as far back as the 30th ultimo. We have now received our files containing the .in. question, as we have also received copies of the Nelson Examiner containing what may by courtesy be called comments upon it, and. so far as our preoccupied space will allow, we make quotations from both. The article in the Independent, which went very much ir the same direction as one that simultaneously appeared in these columns, and which was probably prompted by a simultaneous knowledge of certain circumstances, was as follows : — " The delay in the construction of the railway from the Bruuner Coal-mine to the port of Greymouth is a disgrace tc the Colony. If there is one part of the great scheme of public works which above another commends itself to the approval of all Colonists it is the utilisation of oui valuable coal fields, and when it was decided by Parliament that a railway should be made from the extensive coal field on the Grey River iqAbe.p^'-^tt. was^amararai-Bxpectation that it would be pushed nn with the utmost possible rapidity. The distauce was short, only seven miles, plenty of labor or the very best kind was on the spot, and by this time the line might have been finished ; instead of which it is not yet commenced, nor does there appear mad? prospect of its being commenced for sonio time to come. The public may not be uninterested to learn the causes for this shameful state of things, and to be able to fix the blame on the right shoulders. According to the provisions of that part of the Public Works Act relating to coal field railways the interest and sinking fund of the cost of any coal field railway is made chargeable not upon the Provincial revenues, but upon the mine or mines which the line will serve, and until the Government have taken tlje necessary security from the owners or lessees of the mine they cannot commence the construction of the line. In the case of the Brunner Coal-mine the person through whom the Government had to mke arrangements was Mr Curtis, the Superintendent of Nelson, in whom the reserve is vested. In November, 1871, terms were so far agreed to between Mr Curtis and the Colonial Treasurer that they only remained to be submitted to the Provincial Council of Nelson, without whoje approval Mr Curtis professed himself nnWilling to act. Generally the terms were these : — That the Provincial Government of Nelson should guarantee a traffic of 30,000 tons per annum, for which the charge of two shillings per ton should be made by the General Government, and the General Government, in conjunction with the Provincial Government, to have control in dealing with the mine and appointing a manager. It was a needless delay on the part of Mr Curtis in withholding the decision of the Provincial Government until the Council met some four or five mouths afterwards, and it was at least expected that he would have invited that body to agree to the terms. But he chose to place the matter before the Council in such a manner as to invite criticism and amendment, and the consequence was that a committee of the Council recommended alterations which the Government could not accept. During the same session the Superintendent induced the Council to vote a sum of LSOOO for a wooden tramway from the Brunner mine to Cobden, a miserable little cluster of a dozen houses on the opposite side of the river Grey to the flourishing port of Greymouth. In order to get this trumpery and useless work constructed, Mr Curtis actually was audacious enough to request that the LSOOO should be advanced by the General Government out of the moneys available for the development of coal fields. The reason advanced in the Provincial Council of Nelson, and by Mr Curtis to the General Government for the construction of the tramway, was that the railway to Greymouth would take a long time to construct, and that the wooden contrivance to Cobden would largely assist in developing the mine during the interval. And all this time the construction of the railway is being hung up by the obstinacy of Mr Curtis, just as he has rang up the mine itself for the last four

years. The secret no doubt is a senseless prejudice against the site of the railway. The river Grey divides the Province of Nelson and the County of Westland ; the Brunner mine is on the Nelson side, but the railway is fixed to run down the Westland side to Greymouth, with a bridge over the river at the mine. This route was fixed by a commission consisting of Dr Hector and Mr Blackett, but it has always been a sore point with the Nelson people, and another sore point is that the line in one Province should be charged against a mine which is another. Anyway the whole matter is no further advanced than it was twelve months ago, and entirely through the fault of the Nelson Government. They will neither let the mine, nor make arrangements for the railway, although the line has been surveyed, the rails are on the way from England, and a tender for the line will be "submitted in a few days by Messrs Brogden. A more unsatisfactory and really shameful state of things could not be imagined, and affords another illustration of the hypocrisy of the resolutions which Mr Curtis himself moved last session of Parliament as to the desirability of acting with Provincial Governments in the administration of public works." The reply which the Nelson authorities, or, rather, authority, is capable of giving to the statements in this article is probably sufficiently represented in the article which we have already quoted from the Mail It may be well to know, however, how the Examiner can express itself upon the subject, and that is thus : "It is not easy to conceive a greater tissue of misrepresentation than is here printed. The writer knew perfectly well that the whole blame of the delay rests with the Government, but in order to screen the delinquents he, in the most unblushing manner, seeks to cast the blame on the Superintendent of Nelson. Let us look at the facts." And then, looking at the facts with peculiarly distorted vision, the Emminer pretends to relate what it sees — and what most of us know all about — how there was a draft agreement between the two Governments — how the Superintendent ingeniously referred it to the Council, and the Executive, or some of them, managed to manipulate it, and shift the responsibility on the Council as a whole, and how the General Government hesitated to accept the agreement as amended. Then the Examiner comes guilelessly out with the Independents " cunningly" disguised " real cause of the delay." It says ;— " The real cause of the delay is cunningly kept out of sight by the Independent. It came out during the last session of the Assembly, that the Government estimate of L 26,250 for constructing the railway from the mine down the south bank of the Grey, was a monstrous fallacy, and that the cost would be .£54,400, while, if carried down the north, or Nelson side of the river, it could be constructed for less than half the latter sum. Hence the delay in commencing the work. The Provincial Council were willing to pledge the whole Brunner coalfield for interest on £26,250, to be expended on a railway to a port, although carried through another province, but it will be another thing to ask them to pay interest on a sum of £54,400 for the work, when a railway down the north or Nelson bank of the Grey, to a port equally well adapted for the coal trade, would cost not one-third of the money. These - nro i/no i-i-uo-rocrcsy-wmcn ZVte CII3IT7JJBTITJOUS writer in the hidejiendcnt has entire^' suppressed. The cost of a railway from the mine to a port, must form an important item in determining the price at which the coal can be delivered there. Government wishes to expend £54,400 on a line to Grej r mouth, while in the opinion of very competent persons a line down the north bank, in every way suffi • cient for the work required, could be made for £15,000. Why this waste — why burden the mine unnecessarily ?" Why this waste ) " There's the rub." It is this question which the Superintendent has been putting in various shapes until he has been fairly designated " obtructive," and neither the Mail nor the Examiner seems to see that by repeating his question, they have been proving him to be so, for there cannot be a doubt that there is sympathy between the Superintendent's sentiments and those thus published. Why tins waste ! What waste ? Supposing a railway were made to "Cobden," as something which can scarcely be said to exist continues to be called, how much less than the aggregate cost of the present project would be the outlay on the works on the northern side 1 Probably not a penny. There is not on the northern side at the present moment the slightest facility for shipping, natural or artificial, and it is this fact which the Nelaon organs, official or newspaperial, are continually ignoring — wilfully, it may not be, but at least wantonly in such a case as this. As to the pledging of the Brunner mine more information would be required before attempting any opinion on that point, and at present we are not prepared to accept the Examiner's statement as exactly representing the facts. At any rate it is evident that the Independent has seen reason to return to the subject, and to repeat its charges as to " obstructiveness," and it cannot have overlooked the stipulations affecting the question of interest, or the "pledging of the mine." On this subject the Examiner in a second article repeats its statement, but, guilelessly again, reveals that it is not a matter of " coal-mine" at all, but merely a matter of "Oobden." It says:— " Another telegram leads us to believe, that Government wishes to stipulate that the whole cost of the railway— -a cost which will amount to nearly ,£55,000 to carry it down the Westland side of the river— shall be charged against the mine, while a similar work could be carried to Cobden, on the Nelson bank, for little more than one third of that sum. If these are the Government terms, we do not see how Mr Curtis can comply with them even should he so desire, without the sanction of the Council." Without the sanction of the Council ! What a suddenly acquired consideration for the " sanction of the Council ! " Once more the Council is made a cat'spaw, and perhaps it deserves to be. If the Council is to be seriously asked for its sanction, why may it not be done toniorrow, or as speedily after to-morrow as its members can prepare their legendary "carpet-bags."