THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1398, 23 January 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1873.

It was only the other day that we re curred to the subject of the construction of the Brunner Coal-mine Railway, more for the purpose of disseminating th< opinion of our contemporaries than oi indicating the course of local opinion, The Nelson Examiner, more especially has attacked the Wellington Independewi on the subject, and the paper warfare, to. which we referred the other day; has been going on so strongly thai we are glad to observe the opening up of the Brunner mine will probably, before long, become a Colonial question. As we have quoted the preliminaries ol £he discussion, we may as well state thai the Nelson Examiner, on the 13th inst., followed up the attack by quoting the original propositions of both Mr Yogel and Mr Curtis, and the amendments which were suggested to them by the Legislative Council. They are as follow :— 1. The Superintendent to make a reserve of all the land containing coal within a radius of miles of the Brunner mine, such reserve to be set apart as security to the Government for the interest and sinking fund upon the cost of constructing the railway. 2. The Governor to cause a railway to be made from Greymouth to the mine at a cost not exceeding £ 5. That not less thin 500 tons of coal shall be raised per week. 7. That 25.000 tons of coal shall be raised the first year after the railway is completed, and that t£e.yield shall j early increase 5000 tons, until it reaches 50,000 tons a year • failing whish, the Government to be at liberty, by giving the Superintendent one month's notice, to take possession of the mine and plant;. To these proposals the Council recommended the following amendments, assenting substantially to the others :— . Clause I—That1 — That the land to be set apart for security shall be limited to a radius of ten miles from the Bronner mine. Clause 2— That the coat of the proposed

railway shall not exceed L 26,250, the Engineer's then estimate. Clause s— That the minimum quantity of coal to be raised per week shall be 300, instead of 500 tons. Clause 7— That the minimum quantity of coal to be raised in the first twelve months . be 15,000 tons instead of 25 000 ; that the annual increase shall be 3000 tons instead of 5000 ; and that the minimum yield shall be fixed at 30,000 instead of 50,000 tons. Also, that the Superintendent shall receive three instead of one month's notice of the forfeiture of the reserve through non-compliance with the terms of the agreement. There is a very slight difference between the two proposals so far as the amount of coal to be raised, and the cost of the railway, but, says tho Independent, in reply to its contemporary — "There are many reasons why it should be made compulsory that a minimum quantity of coal should be stipulated for. Mr Curtis we know holds the old-fashioned idea that you must firat get your demand before you attempt a supply, but anyone who has any business knowledge of the subject must know that before we can hope for any regular and large demand for coal a certainty of supply must be depended on. Mr Curtis' principle has been most effectually tested already in the working of the Brunner mine. Under his management coal was only sent down to the port as it was wanted, and for which orders had been previously given; the consequence was that any steamer or vessel requiring a cargo at short notice could not get it, and of course did not repeat the experiment. Instead of taking advantage of a favorable state of the river and sending down and storing as much coal as possible : against the time when traffic on the ! river might be suspended coal was pro--1 ( duced in driblets, just to meet immediate / demand j and when the river was low none '• was to I© had. We say most unhesitatingly that the coal trade of Greymouth , has been slain by the short-sighted miserL able management of the Nelson Governi ment, and it was imperative that in any t agreement for the construction of the l railway provision should be made for en- ; suring a constant and large supply. If i this condition is established there need be - no fear that there will be no equivalent demand. Even now as many vessels 1 leave Greymouth in ballast as take coal, ! for the reason that they cannot depend ' upon a supply." ' : The cost of the railway has little or > nothing to do with the question. It [ matters little whether it be ,£26,000 or , £48,000. The cost iff not charged upon the , provincial revenues but against the coalr field, which cannot be profitably developed ) at all without the railway. If Mr Curtis 1 thinks that the charge is excessive let him hand over the coal mine to the Government as a colonial property, j The Examiner backs up its denial of the charge that Mr Curtis had tied up the mine by a reference to the terms upon which offers for a lease of the mina were invited in 1868, and which have not yet ■ been rescinded ; but again, it refuses to recognise that it was the condition of constructing a railway to Cobden that acted as an effectual bar to the mine being ) taken up. Hail that condition been waived, and the course of the railway been left to the discretion of the lessees [ of the mine, an immense trade would have been developed long ago. However, the Government have gone as far in the direction of meeting tho amendments of t the Nelson Council as they well ccarn r and if Mr Curtis' sentimentality respecting the terminus of the line leads him again . t) refuse assent to the conditions, the Colony will know who is to blame and how to remedy matters.