THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1463, 12 April 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1873.

When we first announced Mr Kynnersley's enforced resignation of his seat for the Grey District in the Nelson Provincial Council, we expressed what was, no doubt, the prevailing feeling — that the reason for his resignation was infinitely more a subject for regret than his absence from a Council in whioh his presence, from no fault of his, was likely to contribute very little to the interests of his constituency. This feeling, we are sure,, will be intensified by a full knowledge of the circumstances under which Mr Kynnersley has been compelled to resign. These circumstances, painful though they must be for him to describe, he very plainly states to a friend in Greymouth with whom he is in the habit of corresponding, and we trust we are guilty of no indiscretion when we distribute, for the information of his many other friends in the Grey Valley and on the West Coast, the real reasons for his resignation, though they are communicated privately, and probably with no expectation of their obtaining general publicity. The public interest taken in Mr Kynnersley, both as a member of the Council, and as an invited candidate for election as Superintendent, of the Province, alone justifies us in explaining that there are very sound and serious reasons for his retirement from public life, and the friendship felt by many towards him personally is our excuse for letting those friends know how much he deserves their sympathy. Mr Kynnersley, at the date of the letter which we take the liberty of quoting, was in Nelson, where he probably still is, and it is in these words in which he states the reasons for the resolve to which he had come: — "I had determined before I came to Nelson that on March 29th I would decide either to visit the Grey and afterwards do my little best in the Provincial Council, or to resign my seat foithwith, giving a clear month for the election of a member to succeed me at the opening of the Council on April 29th. When the time for. my decision came, I had unfortunately no difficulty whatever in making up my mind what to do. Pulse 120— gasping for breath and inability to walk, even on a dead level, at the rate of more than a mile an hour — a leg like the leg of a chair, and an hour's good steady coughing every morning, mean simply the last stage of consumption — a state which is incompatible with the tenure of a seat in the Provincial Council of Nelson, or the performance of any other public duties." To this plain and painful statement, of his condition of health, in the estimate of which, it is sincerely tobe hoped, he may prove to be mistaken, Mr Kynnersley adds •— " I must confess it was a very great wrench, and that I did not like it at all, for I was not only resigning my seat in the Council, but scratching my name from the entries for the Superintendency in October next." In further references to the Superintendency Mr Kynnersley confesses that what was the wish of a great portion of the constituency was also the object of his . ambition, and he no doubt speaks from pretty accurate information, both as to his prospects on the Gold Fields and in the town of Nelson, when he expresses the belief that, had he been able to enter upon the candidature, he could have been returned with ease. With characteristic modesty he speculates as to his fitness to discharge the duties of the office in the single sentence — "I think that I could have done it as well as most people," and he equally sententiously and suggestively refers to his resignation of all prospects cf political place by saying — " However, lam out of it now, and of everything else." Though ill physically, Mr Kynnersley is, as ever, mentally active, and in the midst of his illness he does not forget the interests of those who were lately his constituents. He recommends that the electors should st>nd as good a man as they can get to the Provincial Council in his place, and one of his rea--Bons for the recommendation is the impression — an impression which is not shared iv by all with whom he was lately a colleague, seeing that this is the last session of the Beries — that there will be a good deal of scheming and conspiring by two differently constituted parties whose characteristics Mr Kynnersley describes with much grim humor. He refers also to the Nelson and .Grey Railway — a scheme which, haying already been served upaUhreeSuperintendental election*, is to do duty again with new trimmings, and probably he is not far wrong when he hints at the probability that it will do its duty as efficiently as on any previous occasion. On this subject he says : — " I hope your Member will fight hard against locking up the Brunner Coal-mine and theland for the benefit of this visionary railway company. Get" the railway made by all' means, if you can j but do not ' lock-up ' or ' set- aside ' coalmines and lands, and further retard the slow progress of settlement and development for the sake of this highly improbable company." There is just one other sentence which, for the information of his friends and former constituents, we may quote from Mr Kynnersley 's letter, and we do so again with apology to the writer if a liberty is taken in quoting the language of private correspondence. Referring to himself fMr Kynnersley says : — "I ani thinking of migrating to some warmer clime— not that I have any wish to prolong my weary, useless life, by so doing, but simply because the first frosty nights here will cause me actual physical prostration and , suffering, and I breathe

warm air without discomfort." In the prospect of Mr Kynnersley proceeding to other climes to restore health and prolong what, with health, would be a useful life, ijt would.. b(?. right- arid proper for his confe|'stUnency -in thi Grey Valley to encourage him to go on his way rejoicing in the knowledge that he had their confidence i^M4)aa.liheiJLWar»eßt sympathies. --