The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, FEBRYARY 19, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 43, 19 February 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, FEBRYARY 19, 1872.

Entertained at Westport with Mr. O'Conor's trumpefc-tongued declamations against the Superintendent of Nelson, and welcomed toCharleston by the spirit-stirring strains of the brass band belonging to the Great World Circus, which was kindly lent for the occasion, Mr. Fox must have had rather an exciting time of it during his visit to these. two towns, the inhabitants of which appear to have considered the presence of the Premier among them as an opportunity not to be neglected for making him their confidant, and pouring into his ear their numerous grievances, all of which, according to Mr. Munro, one of the members of the Westport deputation, are to be remedied by granting to them " some form of local self-government." What shape this self-government is to take is not even hinted at, but all that is asked is that some change might be effected, by which the inhabitants would be invested with the power to control the expenditure of their local revenue. It is somewhat strange, after all the outcry which has been raised by a few discontented individuals at Westport against the Provincial Government for its treatment of the inhabitants of the goldfields, that they should have neglected to avail themselves -of any expression of opinion from the actual mining community to place before Mr. Fox in order to strengthen their hands in requesting him to withdraw the delegated powers from the Superintendent, and it is reasonable to suppose in the absence of any address from the diggers themselves tented as Messrs. O'Conor, Munro, and Bickerton Fisher would have it believed, but that this intense desire to on the subject that they are not so disconobtain the control of the expenditure of the local revenue is limited to the inhabitants of the towns, who, no doubt, would take the greatest care that it should be laid out in such a manner as to prove not altogether disadvantageous to themselves, while the interests of the miners who are scattered about in the various localities iv the interior, would be looked upon as i matter of secondary importance. Mr. O'Conor, it is true, comes forward as a self-elected champion of the miners, and enters an indignant protest against £6000 out of the £24,000 voted for the Southwest Goldfields being expended in the Upper Buller district, one of his reasons for opposing it being that to lay, it out in making roads there would be " an injustipe to the goldfields." To expend money in improving the roads on a goldfield would be to commit an act of injustice to that goldfield ! This -is a sample of Mr. O'Gonor's 1 logic. - But we do not so much care to find fault with his reasoning as with, the gross -.unfairness, of , his representations to Mr. Fox on this subject. iC He believed," he saidj " that the Government • bad in a measure promised the sum ..to, Mr* Curtis to": be expended" in the Wai mea district." Now, at the time he uttered; these words, Mr. O'Conor knew perfectly, well that there was not the", slightest^ intention .pn; ; the; :part of the JSuperiatendeat-4,0 obtain this money for

expenditure upon what is ordiuarily known as the Waimea district, and. he was perfectly well aware, that it^as proposed; to lay it out in the Upper Bullet" portiou of the South-west Goldfields, which is as fully entitled to such expenditure- as any part of the West Coasl, not even excluding Westport, to benefit which is, and naturally so, the dearest wish of Mr. o' Conor's heart. In order to show that bo well kuew where it was intended to lay out the money we will quote another portion of his speech : — "The object of the Superiutendent was to receive this money, if possible, for that part of the Upper Buller which really formed part of the Waimea district-, and, although the settled districts of Nelson had elected, through their representatives, to accept the line of railway from Nelson to Foxhill as their share of the Middle Island Railway Fucd, to obtain for them also part of that which by the Legislature was intended for the Grey and Buller public works." As an attempt to give a false impression of the locality and circumstances of the Upper Buller Goldfield, this sentence was certainly very ingeniously worded, but Mr. O'Conormust pardon us for reminding him — we will not sny informing him, as he is already aware of the fact — that the Upper Buller is not one of the." "settled districts" of the province in the sense that he would have wished Mr. Fox to understand the expression. That he. should have attempted fo deprive a purely mining population of the benefits to bo derived from the evpendiiui'e of a sum of money that the. Superintendent had endeavored to obtain for the purpose of improving their communication ou the plea that to so expend it would be to do fi an injustice to the goldfields" is to our minds a very clear proof that it is not solely the iuterest of the miners that Mr. O'Conor is so exceedingly careful about, but simply that he is regardful of their welfare only so far as it is calculated to add to the posperity of Westport. If he had come forward honestly and said that he objecteJ to any portion of the £24,000 being spent upon the Upper Buller on the grounds tbat it was not likely to benefit the community of which he formed a part we could have easily understood his objection, but his protest against it ou account of its being an injustice to the goldfields is not so easily intelligible. We now have to deal with another of Mr. O'Conor's fallacies. To spend the £6000 in accordance with. Mr. Curtis's wishes, he asserts, would be an illegal act, in support of which assertion he quotes Clause 8 of the Immigration and Public Works Act, 1871, in which it is provided That within that part of the Nelson South West Goldfields south of the northern boundary of the Buller Electoral District as the same is now defined, it shall be lawful for the Governor in Council from time to time to direct that such portion of the said . money, being four-elevenths part and no more, may be expended in the construction of tramways or roads- as the Governor in Counci 1 may prescribe, and thereupon such portion may be so expended ; and the tenth and eleventh sections of the said Act shall apply to such traiiways or roads within that part of the Province of Nelson as if the same were railways authorised to be made under the said Act in the said Province. According to this clause, says Mr. O'Conor, * ' it would be seen that the line was definitely laid down, and the locality indicated where the money was to be expended ." Perfectly true. The line laid down is a straight one from the mouth of the river Mackay (or Karamea) to the summit of Mount Arthur, and the locality indicated is Ibat part of the Nelson South West Goldfields that lies to the southward of this boundary. How, under this provision, it is to be established that the laying out of a portion of the money on the Upper Buller district would be an illegal act we are totally unable to understand, butthia may be.accountedfor by a desjre on our part to see the whole of the Nelson Goldfields benefitted by the expenditure of trie £24,000, and not merely that portion of them iv the immediate vicinity of Westport. Mr.' O' Conor's arguments against Mr. Curtis' proposal simply amount lo.this : — lt would be 'an-, act of injustice to the goldfields population to spend money on improving' the roads by which the miners would be benefitted jit would be illegal to lay out, that; money in accordance with the provisions of the. Act. We trust that such arguments will, have their due weight with the Government.' ' • ''',-., ''"■■■ ;..