RAILWAY CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 170, 21 July 1870, Page 2

RAILWAY CORRESPONDENCE.

O ; Letter from Mr. John Morrison to His Honor the Superintendent. Sir— The enclosed are copies of letters I received from Mr. Brogden, and I do myself the honor to transmit them tbat you may see the explanation he gives as to the cause of the delay that has unavoidably arisen, and which T prevents me now forwarding, as I expected to do, the signed contract for the Nelson and Cobden Railway, and the draftJActs which have to be passed by the General Assembly and the Provincial Council of Nelson. I was obliged, but most reluctantly, to raise objections to certaiu parts of the draft contract submitted, and to return it for correction. The clauses to which I considered it my duty to take exception were fully discussed wilh Mr. Brogden and his solicitor, but as you observe that the latter gentleman has had to leave town, and was longer absent than was expected, I have been unable to get further progress made. Anticipating that when you receive this letter the General Assembly 'will be in session, I pointed out to Mr. Brogden the importance of transmittirigjthe documents by the present mail; in this view he concurred but like myself he has been unable to get it done. ' I am, &c, (Signed) John Morrison. Copies or Letters from Mr. Brooden to Mb. Morrison*. London. sth May. Dear Sir: — Ilfiave been with my 'solicitor, but find him so very pressingly engaged in the preparation of affidavits for a suit in Chancery, which must be completed within the next few days that I could not get his attention. He reminds me too that he can do nothing until he has quietly examined the Lauds Clauses Act of 1866, and the Canterbury or the Otago Railway Act. Will you be good. enough tp let him have these as sobn as possible, but I don't think that within the next few days he can give it much attention. Yours, &c. (Signed) Alex. Brogden ! „ ' , . London, 13th May. Dear Sir.— My solicitor only returned to town this morning. I have not been able to meet with. him yet, but will take the opportunity of seeing him as soon as possible. T ,1 am > &c - A'- : - 'i J. '-;' (Sighed) A. Brogden.

, "Waimea Quartz Crushing Company. -r-The promoters of, this company are energetically pushing it forward, and we notice that meetings are te be held at Richmond to-morrow, and at Waimea West on Saturday evening, for the purpose of bringing it before tho public and gettiug the shares taken up, in order that the necessary capital may be raised and the machinery sen t-for without delay. Collingwood Coal Mine.— We learn that a new. seam of excellent., coal 3 feet thick and entirely free from shale has been discovered on the Collingwood Coal Mining Company's ground 17 feet below the seam that has hitherto been worked, and that several bags of the coal from this new seam have been brought over in the Lady Barkly to be forwarded to Wellington by the first opportunity, in compliance with the request of his Honor the Superintendent. The Annexation Commission.-— -Mr. Hodgson, a member of the Commission appointed to consider the Greymouth annexation question, went south by the Kennedy on Sunday. We believe that Dr. Giles will not be able to act in conjunction with the above-named gentleman, his attendance being necessary in Nelson as a witness in the case of John White, charged with perjury. We are unaware whether anyone has been appointed in his i stead to visit the Grey and form an opinion as to the desirability of meeeting the alleged wish of the people of the northern portion of the Couuty of Westland. The question is open to grave objection on the grounds that the province would be saddled with a large portion of the debts of the County of Westland, and it would also appear from a comparative statement of the receipts and expenditure of the district, now seeking separation from Westland, that during the past twelve months a considerable sum had been expended within its limits in excess of the revenue derived from it. It is difficult to understand, therefore, on what grounds the people are agitating for separation, since it has been shown that South-West-land has had a better case of complaint for unfair distribution of revenue than Greymouth and its vicinity. — Westport Times, The Volunteers op the Middle Island. — We take the following extracts from Col. Harrington's report to the. Hon. D. McLean: — From the sth to the 15t.h of January I was employed in the inspection of the Volunteers of the Province of Otago. The several corps paraded strong both in town and country, their general appearance and efficiency in drill prove them to be the most zealous volunteers . in the colony, and this superiority is demonstrated practically by the excellence of their rifle aud artillery practice. On the 16th I went to Canterbury where I found the numbers assembled on parade were small, but that might have been; accounted for by the great scarcity of labor .at that season of the year when all hands were required for" harvest. The several corps were .tolerably steady under arms, but there is decided room for im-' provement in the general zeal of the volunteer movement throughout the province. At Westland I fouud the several corps in good order, arid showing every disposition to make themselves efficient, especially the " Totara Rifles" at Ross, who were very steady under arms, and know their drill well.- On the 13th of February I visited Nelson, where I remained till -the, 25th. . The rifle practice was gobd, as also that of the artillery ; but the several companies did not muster in good numbers, nor were they as efficient in drill as might have been expected." After making certaiu remarks on the general working of the Volunteer system, Col. Harrington concludes his report as follows : — I strougly recommend that Cadet Corps should receive more encouragement, as they are more easily trained at an early age, and acquire a knowledge of their duties, which makes the work a source of pleasant occupation. Without doubt, the Volunteers of the. Province of Otago are.; the most , ; zealous and efficient in the colony, and I consider that in a great measure this superiority lias been 'attained through the encouragement given them by grants from the Provincial Council, and the general support which they receivefrorh the public of the Province. : Mb. : George Cotterell.— -The, BluS; correspondent of the Weekly News my a :— "Mr. George Cotterell ; gsy,er : ;Oiie of his admirable entertainmentsjn, thedong room of the Eagle Hotel on Thursday evening.

By 8 o'clock the "room; was uncomfortably crowded. The programme ,has been already noticed in the News, but I may say that Mr. Cotterell's powers of mimicry seem almost unlimited. He kept his audience amused during the whole performance, and frequently elicited bursts of irrepressible laughter." The New Zealand Examiner, a paper published iu Londou, very sensibly observes : — " The manufacture of paper in New Zealand, the quantity of which is constantly increasing, might bo entered upon with advantage, as the very best of all materials lies at the doors of the colonists, and can be produced infinitely cheaper than any other at present used in the European manufactories." . Strong Language. — For an energetic and unmistakable expression of opinion on political subjects, commend us to the following resolutions which the Evening Star reports as having been proposed by Mr. J. S. Grant, aud carried unanimously at a public meeting at the Dunedin Octagon : — No. 1. " That in the sober and impartial judgment of the citizens of Dunedin, the present incumbents of the Treasury benches of the New Zealand General Government, are a parcel of worthless, venal, illiterate, selfish, log rolling charlatans, whose maniacal schemes of railways, taxation, aud loans, demonstrate their ludicrous imbecility as statesmen, and their unfituesa to sway the destinies of this quack-ridden couutry." -No. 2. " That this city hails with feelings of unmiugled satisfaction the General Government's contemptible threat of dissolution in case they cannot carry their visionary and venal projects, and assures them solemnly that no efforts on the part of the commercial metropolis of New Zealand Avill bo wanting to secure the rejection of the supporters and followers of the present Ministry at the next elections, and to prevent such time-serving mountebanks from disgracing the Legislature and darkening tha counsels of the colony with their mercenary sophistries." Should the above resolutions really express the views of the public of Dunedin, it is hardly too much to say that the present Ministry is not likely to find much support in that city. However, as they were proposed by Mr. $. S. Grant, we are not inclined to attach much weight to them, but are rather disposed to view them as one more of the amusing ebullitions of spite that occasionally emanate from that eccentric gentleman. The Budget Debate. — Colonel Haultain on rising contrived to throw a little life into the debate by instituting a comparison between the Defence expenditure of the late and present Governments, the result showing that the present administration had last year spent, within about £25,000, as much as their predecessors did. the year before, wheu war broke out on both sides of the Island, and found the Colony in a totdly unprepared condition. Last year all the Government had to do was to hunt a fugitive whose wiugs had previously been clipped. He. drew a striking contrast between what the two Governments had done for their money, and attributed the failure to catch Te Kooti to the system of demilitarisation and want of a proper commander. He congratulated the Government on the success they had achieved iu carrying out the plans devised and commenced by their predecessors, although they had failed in all their original conceptions. He pronounced demilitarisation a failure, and - professed alarm at the state of the friendly natives, fearing that they might some day use against us the arms we had given them. He begged the Government to tvy rather to demilitarise the native than the European forces. Of course Col. Haultain's speech roused the ire of Mr. Ormond, who got up and repeated all the old story about the late Government having tried to provoke a war of races, and the present one have prevented it. Then Mr. Ormond ran a muck against Mr. Wood, Mr. Gillies,, and all the other members who had opposed the details of the Government scheme. He declared that they were afraid to speak or do what they wished, because of the elections being at hand. This insinuation brought Mr. Wilson, Mr. Gillies, and Mr. Rolleston to their feet ia a state of great indignation. Mr Ormoud then went on to abuse Mr. Gillies in particular, and to invent all sorts of reasons for that gentleman's . hostility, finally ' ascribing it to the «great ultra-Provinciat feeling. which made Mr. Gillies wish tob* a; king in Bumbledom, though the Colony might perish. Tothe intense surprise o£ [the House, Qrraqnd ahndunced

himself ,as an Anti-Provincialist— the party to which' he three years ago, belonged. He would not give the Provinces a penny of the ten-millions tospend if ..he could help it. He, wound up by suggesting the granting of a moderate sum to. commence immigration and public works, and carry them bn till a new Parliament could meet to decide onthe larger scheme. Mr. Creighton "was tho next to rise, and he administered a welldeserved castigation to Mr. Ormond, letting the House into the secret of that gentleman's hostility to Mr. Gillies. It was that Mr. Gillies had detected him poaching on the waste lands of Aucklaud, and actually selling them. Mr. Gillies had compelled him to disgorge the proceeds, and he would still further have to disgorge about £4.000 connected with thc Native Lands Court, which belonged rightly fo Auckland, but which Hawke's Bay had appropriated. Superintendents, Mr. Creighton hinted, might be bad, but Geueral Government Agents were worse. He would have no objection to the abolition of the Provinces, and the resumption of the Colonial estate by the Colony. We could then safely borrow. He was very emphatic in condemning Protection, and while approving the principle of the Government policy, advocated the postponement of its consideration till the next session.