THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY,' JUNE 7, 1873.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1511, 7 June 1873, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY,' JUNE 7, 1873.

The circumstances which contributed to unanimity among the Nelson and West Coast members of the Nelson Council regarding the construction of a trunk line of railway within the Province are not very difficult to discover. They include, of course, the promise of the General Government to promote the work, the abandonment of the idea of forming a company for the purpose, the granting of land to the General Government as special security, but mainly these two considerations — the prospect of the line becoming part of the main line in the Middle Island, and of it thus contributing to the connection of the. West Coast, not merely with Nelson city, but with the magnificent Provinces of Canterbury and Otago. To form a fair understanding of how this unanimity was brought about, it may be well to recount some of the proceedings in connection with the subject within the Nelson Council, the proceedings of the Inland Communication Committee, and the result, so far as concerns their interview with the General Government, have already been recorded. "... It was on the conclusion of ; these proceedings that the Superintendent of Nelson sent down to the Council a message as a preliminary to the introduction of distinct propositions' by this so-called Executive. In that message his Honor said : — "The Provincial Council will observe that the Government of Canterbury is not disposed to contribute by subsidy either in land or money towards the construction of a branch line from the Ahaura to the Hurunui in accordance with the suggestion of the Hon. Mr Yogel contained in correspondence already before the Council. " The Colonial Government has, however, favorably entertained certain proposals made • to tb em by the deputation for the construe* of the entire line between Foxhill and Brunnerton from funds provided by the General Assembly. "The Superintendent earnestly recommends these proposals to the early attention of {the- Provincial Council, and trusts that they will cordially join with him by a ; unanimous resolution in asking the Colonial Government to recommend the necessary legislative action to the General Assembly at the session shortly to commence." . Notice of motion to go intd Committee on this message, and the generally altered circumstances of the case; were, of course, sufficient reason for Mr Guinness withdrawing the second series of resolutions, of which he had given notice on one and the same subject— namely> the procuring of a loan for, railway and other purposes. These resolutions were :— '- ' ' ■ "That, with the view :'of promoting and securing the prosperity of this Province, it is desirable to effect a loan of £500,000/ for the following: purposes, viz.:— ( 1. ) " The sum of £300, 000 to go towards the construction of a railway from Foxhill to

the terminus of the Greymouth line, and a branch line from Ahaura to the Hurunui at the terminus of the Christchurch lines ; the balance necessary to complete these works to be paid in land. (2.) "The remainder of loan towards the construction of branch roads and such other pnblic works as may from time to time be recommended by the Executive Council and sanctioned by the Provincial Council. . " That his Honor be respectfully requested to prepare a draft Bill to lay before the General Assembly to obtain powers enabling this Province to borrow £500,000 for the above-mentioned purposes ." Mr Guinness did not, however, at once withdraw the resolutions above quoted. He conceded so far to the wishes of some j of the other members as to permit the "previous question" to be moved, so that he and they might opportunely indicate to the Government in what direction they desired that the Executive resolutions should go. From this concession ,much did not result, but it gave, at least, Mr Guinness an opportunity of suggesting to the Government that, in connection with any loan that might be authorised, it would be well to consider the propriety of disposing of part of it in the construction of roads which should serve the purpose of feeders to the main line of railway. It gave opportunity also to one of the members for the Buller District, Mr Reid, of resuscitating a question which had been somewhat prematurely settled, so far as the recommendation of the Council extends — the question of appropriating £25,000 of the railway fund available next year for Nelson Gold Fields roads to the one work of constructing a dray road from the Inangahua to the Owen. FrOm the remarks which this member made, it seemed to be his idea that it was rather too much of a good thing to confer upon a district which is almost throughout its length a narrow defile, the benefits of two distinct and probably almost contemporaneous works— a road and a railway. He recognised the L25,0()0 already recommended to be spent as that distinctively belonging to the Railway Fund, and suggested the propriety of rescinding a motion which had, against the views of the majority of the West Coast members, been carried at a time when there was no prospect of the sister scheme — that of the proposed railway — being undertaken. He contended, in short, that there was a vast area of country in what might, for brevity's sake, be designated the Westport district, in which there was not a mile of what could be properly called main roads, and to that district, he thought, there was fairly due some consideration. His meaning, probably was, that in addition to the fact of its having had no fair share of that expenditure which has been the means of opening up the valleys of the Grey and Inangahua, the seaward portion of the Buller district was also excluded from the railway project in its present shape, and that therefore, if the available fund were to be discreetly devated to its proper purpose it should be devoted to the construction of a dray road, of which Westport should be the starting-point. With this argument we in the Grey district can now possibly afford to agree. It, however, remains a question whether, it might not be more beneficial to the commercial interests of Westport to have a dray-road from the Inangahua junction as the highest point of good river navigation, to the Lyell, Matakitaki, and Owen, rather than a dray road parallel to the Buller along its easily navigable reaches below the mouth of the Inangahua. But it may be equally a question whether other parts of the Buller district do not deserve roads more than the district above the Lyell, which has already had money spent npon it, and which has promise of this railway, and that is, perhaps, the question which Mr Reid has raised. By "raised" we mean, of course, that it has been referred io by him. Now that a recommendation on the subject has been made by the Nelson Council, it is not likely that it will be rescinded, and, to practically raise the question in an opposite direction, action on the part of the inhabitants of the Gold Fields themselves, or on the part of their representatives in the General Assembly, will be requisite. This was one of the digressions from the discussion on the railway question as temporarily raised by Mr Guinness, and it is so far a digression for us to refer to it. Other digressions, not less useful as hints to the General Government, were made, and Mr Guinness's resolutions were then, with his approval, and with no disapproval of their spirit on the part of others, set aside. It was on a subsequent evening that the resolutions fore-shadowed in the Superintendent's message on the same subject were proposed in Committee of the whole Council, and were, as already indicated by ' telegram, carried with unanimity as to their sentiment, though not without some division of opinion as to the particular language in which that sentiment was conveyed. The text of these resolutions, as proposed, and as carried, was as follows ;— " 1. That thia Council is of opinion that the construction of a railway from Foxhill to Brunnerton, uniting the two short lines already under contract from Nelson to Fox- ' hill and from Brunnerton to Greymouth, is absolutely essential alike to the immediate prosperity and the permanent settlement of all parts of the Province. . "2. That the Council earnestly request the Colonial Government to recommend the General Assembly to authorise the construction of the line. from the funds raised, or hereafter to be raised, by the Colony for public works on the following conditions : — 1. That the work be carried out by the Public Works department of the Colony. 2. That special security be given by the Province in land within the watershed of the valleys through which the line will run, to the extent of 10,000 acres per mile of railway. 3. That the Province shall be subject to the same liabilities as other Pro- I • vinces in which railway works are being carried on by the Public Works department." The: discussion to which these resolutions gave rise was unfortunately lessupOn the larger .questions which they involve — the questions of security and liability— than upon the mere diction of the first of the series, 1 This arose through another of the members for the Buller district, Mr O'Oonor, directing all his disputation to this question of diction, and even then unsuccessfully. It did not prevent unanimity, but it did divert from the major questions the attention of the Council to questions that vere of minor and even trivial importance. This circumstance detracted considerably from the value of a discussion, the opinions expressed in which it is desirable to know, considering

how diametrically opposed West Coast members have hitherto been to the railway project as originally propounded. Sufficient, however, seems to be indicated in some of the brief published reports to enable us to catch the spirit of the remarks of West Coast members, so far as they were enabled to deal with the subject, and in justice to them, and to the enterprise of which they have, in the name of their constituents, approved, we shall resume in another number a narrative of the proceedings which culminated in the foregoing resolutions being passed.