PROGRESS COMMITTEE ST. BATHANS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 344, 8 October 1875, Page 3

PROGRESS COMMITTEE ST. BATHANS.

A meeting . of. above Committee was held in the schoolroom on Saturday 2nd insfc., for the purpose of nominating a new Committee. The Secretary of the retiring Committeo read the following report: —"The retiring Committee were elected to office for twelve months on the 6th October 1874. From that time down to the present there were ten meetings of the Committee, the attendance of the several members was as follows:—Mr. Kenny, Chairman, attended ten meetings, the Secretary Mr.Mulvey, ten, Mr. Peacock nine, Mr. Prescofct, eight, Mr. Hanrahan, seven, Mr. Smith, six and Mr. Jones, four. The work accomplished either in part or in whole by the committee, or suggested by them to the district members for furtherance, was, Ist. the obtaining of £IOO and spending of same on repairs of road St. Bathans to Blackstone Hill; 2nd. the obtaining a small subsidy from Government towards fencing the public cemetery (not half what was promised though); 3rd. getting placed on the estimates for this year a sum of £250 for the erection of footbridge across the Manuherikia, and a sum of £2OO for repairs of roads, Becks St. Bathans and Blackstone ; Hill; 4th a promise of £75 to aid the Muddy Creek Channel Company, in bridging the road where their channel will, cut it in Muddy Creek. The Committee also did their best to obtain a grant of £IOO for the construction of dray i track to Surface Hill, but regret to say that they did not succeed in obtaining even a promise of aid for that necessary accommodation, whether the promises already made _ will be faithfully kept and carried out is doubtful. Letters almost innumerable were written to the Government, to district members, and those who might enable us to have those improvelments carried out. The last letter bearing on those promises, addressed by the Committee to the Secretary for Lands and Works, was dated St. Bathans 26th August, and was as follows. (Letter here read). A copy of this letter was forwarded by same mail to District Engineer Mr. Browne, and another to Mr. Armstrong one of the district members, with a request to the latter gentleman that he would in a {ew days afterwards wait upon the Secretary for Lands and Works and ascertain, from him, if possible, how far our wishes were likely to bo complied with, Mr. 1 Browne, after allowing a reasonable time to elapse for instructions to reach him from Dunediu, had the courtesy to write saying he had up to that time received no instructions whatever regarding the promised improvements ; neither did the Committee receive any reply either from tho Secretary for Lands and Works or from Mr. Armstrong in- reference thereto, until a day or two ago, when, in reply to telegrams asking answer to our letter of August last, the Secretary Mr. Green, sent a message stating we should have reply by post. Mr. Armstrong's message was as follows. (Message read.) Mr. Armstrong, in his comical witty style says, " if you threaten any more I will never sit in the Council again." This is very likely, for abolition is all but accomplished, so they say. And I will here make a digression as perhaps we on the Goldfields may one day have something to say in that matter. We have small reason on the Goldfields to be very grateful for the scant attention paid us by the Provincial Government, but ifc was —and always would be—more accessible for us than a Government sitting at Wellington, and if I had ten thousand votes tomorrow I would give them all to preserve the local institution with all its faults. Warned by what, has taken place by an Abolition Bill in my native country, I would wish to preserve the country of my adoption from a similar misfortune. Lord Byron, speaking in -his place in the House of Lords, said of the abolition of the Irish and the so-called Act of Union, twenty years after it became law : " If you must call it a union, then it is the union of the shark with his prey; the spoiler-swallows up his victim, and thus they become one and indivisable. Thus has Great Britain swallowed up the Parliament, the Constitution, and the independence of Ireland." The prime mover in tho Act which led to this result was Lord Castlereagh, who afterwards committed suicide, and of him Lord Byron again says, in his abhorrence of the man and the .act: "First he cut his country's throat, and then his own." Those who are acting like him here may not think th'ev are cutting the throat of Otago, but, if they do, I hope remorse may not drive them to cut their own by and bye. Returning to Mr. Armstrong, I must say that our Committee have found him always ready to oblige ; and, as Secretary to the Committee, I very often trouble Mr. do Lautour for advice, and take this opportunity of stating that it was always promptly given, and always practical. Knowing it would be a great convenience, we asked that the mails St. Bathans to Blackstone Hill should be carried in future by wheeled conveyance. Mr. Macandrew informed us a lew weeks ago that tho Postmaster-General had ordered alternative tenders to be called lor. Seeing that tenders were called by public notice here a few days ago for this service, and no mention of alternative tenders was made that notice, we must come to one of two conclusions, viz., cither the PostmasterGeneral did not keep his word to Mr. Macandrew, and gave no instructions about calling for alternative tenders, or he (lid give such instructions I tit they were not cuupJud with— which i.s the right conclusion we cannot tay, Suchin-

s'ances sliow yon Itovv apt the wishes of Goldfields population* are to be ignored by every department, Postal or Governmental, and proves the necessity of keeping hammering constautly at tliem in order to obtain the smallest accomodation. It is in order to keep up a correspondence with the Government that you elect a" Progress Committee, to seek such aid as they can get for repairs of roads and other essential improvements in the immediate neighborhood." The nomination then took place, and the election was fixed for Thursday first. Fourteen were nominated,.. seven of wlioin will be returned as a Committee.