THE NELSON SUPERINTENDENCY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1654, 22 November 1873, Page 2

THE NELSON SUPERINTENDENCY.

MR. CURTIS AT COBDEN.

On Thursday night Mr Oswald Curtis, Superintendent of Nelson Province, who is now a candidate for re-election to that office, addressed the electors of the Cobden district in the school-house, which was crowded.

Mr Hoenby was called to the chair, and introduced Mr Curtis, at the same time asking for him a fair and impartial hearing. If the shoe pinched any one present he hoped they would exercise patience until the speech was over, when they could ask as many questions as they liked. (A Voice: "It has pinched for the last seven years." He had known Mr Curtis sixteen years — (A Voice : " Has it pinched all that time ?" — and had never heard a word against him in any of his transactions.

Mr Cortis, who was well received, said he was aware that the electors had had many calls upon their patience recently, so that he intended to detain them as short a time as possible. He would confine himself to the actual business which coucerned them and the Province at lareje, and would not occupy their time in indulging abuse of his opponent. In speaking of the public actions of his opponent, he would endeavor to speak of him as one candidate should always speak of another, in a gentlemanly manner. He was sorry his opponent had thought proper to speak otherwise of. him. He was not aware what Mr O'Conor had said when addressing them, but at meetings held in other parts of the Province his speeches had been made up almost entirely of indiscriminate abuse of him (the speaker). He first proposed to give them a sketch of what was his intentions so far as his immediate course of action was coucerned, in the event !of his being elected. In the first place he would call the Provincial Council together, for the purpose of selecting a new Executive Council that would possess the confidence of the majority of the Provincial Council. He did not mean an Executive that .would go in and out according to the votes of the Council j but, however, it would be an Executive constituted in accordance with the views of the new Provincial Council. The other object of calling the Council together, was to consider; what steps were desirable to be taken in i order to procure the execution of the large number of public works required in several parts of the Province. For some years past there had been no possibility of getting money by way of ; a loanl An Act was passed six or seven years ago by the Assembly' prohibiting the Provinces from borrowing money. That had been strictly adhered to, with the exception of the Province of Wellington. That Provincegotinto difficulties throughborrbwing money from buildingand other societies and by having large overdrafts at the bank, and in order to prevent the Colony having to tske over its debts that Province was allowed to borrow money. The Province of Otago, the most powerful of all the Provinces, with thirteen members in the General Assembly, had lately made two attempts to obtain leave t > borrow money, and in each case had been unsuccessful. Since he had beeu in office no Province, with, the exception he had mentioned, could get a loan, so that he had been compelled to depend entirely upon the ordinary revenue of the Province for the carrying out of any necessary public works. But during the last session of the Assembly there appeared to be a general feeling that the Provinces should be allowed to borrow for public works, because the large works of the General Government would prove insufficient unless the Provinces were enabled to carry out a large number of smaller works in connection with them. No doubt Mr O'Oonor had told them that he had introduced a Bill into the Assembly for a loan of L 60,000 for Nelson Province, and that he (Mr Curtis) opposed it. That was quite correct, but he would not have oppesed it if the object had been a legiti mate one. The object of the' Bill was simply to make ' a road up the Buller Valley, and he opposed it because he considered that if it was to be a Provincial loan the other districts ought to par-, ticipate in the benefits of it ; but by that B;ll there was no such thing intended. Ho then introduced a bill for the loan of Ll 10,000 for the Province, to be spent on public works. He admitted that he drew up the/list of works he considered most pressing to be constructed out of the loan, : in a very hasty manner, and the only sum put down for this part of the district was L'ioOO for a road from Cobden to Coal Creek. At the same time he was aware that there were other works heomitted, because the Provincial Council had no opportunity of expressing an opinion upon them. Of course they knew that all the Provincial Loans Bills were thrown out by the Upper House, on the ground that the Provincial Councils of the different.'Provinces had had no opportunity of expressing any opinion upon them, but he felt sure that during next session the Assembly would be prepared to consider any carefully drawn up bills for a similar object coming from the Provinces ; and it would be for the electors of this and every other district to instruct their members in the Provincial Council as to what public works it would be justifiable for them to borrow money. In the event of the Province borrowing a large sum of money he proposed to expend a considerable sum on the Oobden wharf— (applause) — and it would be well for them to impress upon their representative the necessity for a share of the loan being set aside for the construction of a bridge over the Grey river at Oobden. (Great applause.) That was not a work for the

Province of Nelson to undertake, without the co-operation of the Province of Westland. Nelson should not have the whole expense to bear ; it Bhould be equitably divided. He thought it very probable that Westland would join Nelson in the construction of 'the bridge, as it was likely they would also endeavor to raise a loan for public works during next session of the Assembly. He certainly would not charge the whole cost of the bridge to the . Province of Nelson. With regard to what was now doing in connection with the Brnnner coal-mine, they well knew that until very recently it had been the sole property of the Nelson Government, but he had recently given security over the' mine for the construction of the railway from the mine to the port. (A Voice : 1" To Greymouth.") He had professional evidence that the railway should have been made on the north side,' but the General Government made inquiries into the matter, and at his suggestion Mr Blacbett and Dr Hector were appointed to report as to the best side for the railway to come down. He had not the remotest doubt as to what their f decision would be, because Mr Blackett had on several occasions told him that he considered the Cobden side to be the proper one on which the railway , should be n>ade, and he believed that l)r Hector had expressed the same opinion. To his surprise these gentlemen sent in a strong recommendatian that the line should be made on the Greymouth side, aud as they had been specially named by him and appointed at his request, his mouth was absolutely shut by their re« port, and he could push the matter no further. He believed their report was founded on the fact that it was intended to be a portion of a through line, and that the works should be carried on in connection with the works for the protection of the port of Greymouth. He certainly fought the matter to the last extremity. He had then only one course to pursue — to refuse to give the security over the mine, and this he had no inclination to do, seeing that the gentlemen who had given the decision had been named by himself, and he considered himself bound by- their decision. He believed it had been~mentioned as a complaint that he had allowed stone to be taken from the Cobden to the Greymouth side of the river to assist in completing the protective works there. He did not believe there was an elector in the room who would say that he should have refused to allow the stone to go over the river, ■when there wao such an abundance of it for all purposes, and simply because it^ffas the property of the Province of N elson. He had pointed out the position from which the stone was to be taken, but the stone there was found not to be of good quality, arid the present spot was indicated, with the proviso that no stone should be taken from below the level of the road, so that the removal of the stone would assist in widening the road. He thought it would have been extremely selfish if he had refused to give the stove, simply because it was in the Province of Nelson ; and he would do the very same thing under similar circumstances if they occurred to-morrow. With regard to water-races on the gold-fields, he proposed out of the money hfc suggested to be borrowed, the appropriation of an amount for comparatively small undertakings. The General Government had last year set aside a sum of money for large races, and by that means tenders were now called for the Hochstetter Water-race, and he believed they were also about to undertake what was, usually known as the Napoleon Hill Water-race, at a cost of about L 30,000. That was as much as the Province could expect out of the General Government loan for large works, but he knew there were plenty of works smaller, but of quite as useful a description, required on these gold-fields which might cost about LSOOO each, and which would prevent the miners from leaving the country.. He proposed that out of the loan a sum of say L 20.000 or L 25,000 should be set aside for the construction of these works, either wholly by the Government or by subsidies granted to private companibS. A measure of considerable importance to the West Coast was passed last session — the Local Revenues Bill — which constituted Local Boards on the South- West GoM-fields, and allocated to them the expenditure of a proportion of the local revenue, and also any amounts that might be voted to them for expenditure by the Provincial Council. When that; measure was proposed, he was sorry to find titet it was opposed by the members for^Jftese districts, on the ground that it did not go far enough. In that act he thought they were mistaken, as it was only an experiment, only the beginning of a good work —so that the people in the several districts should have some control over the expenditure on local works.- If the Act was deficient, at the outset there was no reason why it should not be amended at a future meeting cf the Council, when the several Boards could offer their suggestions regarding it. He hoped that all these bodies would communicate with the Government in this respect, so that any alterations could be. introduced in the form of a new bill. During /the last session of the Assembly he promoted the Agricultural Leases Bill, which was passed. It conferred many advantages upon the lessees, and did much to promote the permanent settlement of the country. During the short time that he was connected with the General Government, Mr O'Oonorintroducedabillforithepurposeof making miners' rights available {on both sides of the Grey riveirJ As it was late in the session, Mr O'Conor came to him and asked him to help him through with it. He took it up as a Government measure, got it passed, and now miners' ; rights taken out in Westland, and Nelson were in force on both sides of the Grey river. No doubt Mr O?Conor had told them that he (Mr Curtis) had opposed a bill to allow miners to vote on their miners' rights in the election for Superintendents. He had certainly done so, as he considered that if any miner who had a roof : of any description over his head would not' take the trouble to get himself registered, to sign his name to a piece of paper, he wa9 not entitled to a vote. He considered that it would be a piece of class legislation to give miners an advantage that was not given to any other class of the community. If they would not take the trouble to get themselves registered there was no need for a fresh law to provide for persons of that description. He believed 'that much disappointment was caused to the mining community by their members asking for such special benefits. They had asked for separation, they had asked for the

Who con tell what thoughts crowded into the brain of poor Dick Mortiboy, lying there, alone and untended, stricken to death 11, for one, cannot. I only know that he was softened and changed of late ; that many things had quite suddenly become clear to him ; that the old carelessness was changing in gravity ; that he was beginning to recognize the evil of his ways ; that life had changed its aspect. Wealth had done this for him : wealth, that works in many ways, turning the unselfish man into the voluptuary, or the selfish man into one who live and cares wholly for others. Wealth brings with it its curse or its blessing, just as its recipient is disposed. It is a means to make a Tiberius, or it may make its Here the law o£ libel interferes ; or I migh*, name one who has great wealth, a giant's strength, and owns it as a trust for the improvement, as best he can, of his fellows — a singlehearted, honest mm : a rich man j for whom the needle's eye is as easy to pass as for the poorest pauper who breathes with resignation and dies with joy. So would it have been for my Dick Mortiboy. But at the moment when the tide was turned came the stroke of fate, and he who might have done so much was forbidden to do anything. Ah ! the pity of it-^-the pity of it !

CHAPTER X.VII-CONTINUED

A MATTER-OF-FACT STORY

READY - MONEY MORTIBOY.

One hundred and twenty-four pounds ten shillings, collected by Captain J. U. Kussell, of Dunedin, from ninety-eight persons, has been remitted to Melbourne as a contribution to the fund for benefiting the -widow of tbo late Captain Rouse. It included LIO from the city of Dunedin Wreck Fund. L3ohad previously been collected by Capt, Calder.

" Come in, Thoozy — come up with me. Uncle Dick said you was to come, 3 r ou know."