The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1873.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 3, 3 January 1873, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1873.

The delay that has occurred in establish- . ing overland communication between the Brunner mine and the mouth of the Grey river appears to have attracted the attention of the WeUington Independent, a journal that, together with the Grey River Argus, is always ready, when no more interesting theme for an article is at hpnd, to attack Mr. Curtis. We have not yet seen that, number of the Independent which contains the last attack, but the telegraph informs us that it is asserted that the Brunner railway is hung up by Mr. Curtis' obstinacy. On what grounds this statement is made we are unable, * . after perusing the voluminous correspondence that has taken place between the Superintendent and ,Mr. Yogel on the subject, to discover. In the last session of the Provincial Council there were placed hefore it draft articles of an agreement between her Majesty and the Superintendent relative to setting apart, as a cbal '■,■ reserve, a portion of land within a radius . of ten miles from the mine, as a guarantee for interest and sinking fund on the capital to be expended in the construction of a railway from, the mine to Greymbuth. These, > with .certain , modifications, were 7agreed 7 to, among others that the cost of yy, the line y should 7 not exceed' i£26j2so, :^an4^ G-ciyern- ; men t, instead of being compelled to raise Z ; 25i60Qytbns;;7.iii : ; -' tfre vjfirsttiy^arv v ; iriiidy air yjaadid^ y|sooo;ito^

more than 15,000 tons the first year, and an additional 3000 a year afterwards until the total uunual yield had reached 30,000 tons. 7lt now appears, however, 1 that the estimated cost of the line has been extended from £26,250, the amount authorised by law, to £54-,400, being an average of about £8000 per mile. In addition to this, Mr. Yogel objects to the alterations made by the Council as to the minimum amount of coal to be raised annually, and until this. is restored to the quantity originally proposed by him, he refuses to allow the line to be commenced. To thesß objections Mr. Curtis very sensibly replies that the alterations made by the Council appear to be unimportant, as the quantity of coal to be carried by the railway is more likely to be regulated by the demand at the port, and the supply obtainable, than by any articles of agreement, to which, he adds that it will clearly be the interest of the Provincial Government or of the lessees of the mine, whoever they might be, to sell as much coal as possible. Mr. Curtis further states that he is not prepared to move the Provincial Council to recede from the alterations they made in the details of the conditional agreement as, although they appear to be quite unimportant as regards the construction of the railway, they are in other respects, judicious. The question at issue in all its details is far too lengthy for us to enter upon it at present, but the chief hitch appears to be that which we have mentioned above. The correspondence will, no doubt, be published in full in due time, and the public will then be able to judge for themselves lo what extent our Wellington contemporary is justified ia attributing the " hanging up" of the railway to the obstinacy of Mr. Curtis. The " obstinacy " of which complaint is made crops up, however, in another phase of the question, where, as we think we can show, it -is not Mr Curtis that is to be charged with it. It will be remembered that in the last session of the Council the following resolution was agreed to: — " That, in order to maintain and extend the tradß of the Brunner Mine until a locomotive railway can ba constructed, a wooden tramway should be laid down between the mine and the town of Cobden, provided the cost does not exceed £5000," Shortly after the rising of the Council, Mr Curtis wrote to the General Government informing them of the resolution tbat had been passed, and asking them, as the amount appropriated exceeded tbe estimated revenue, to advance the sum of £5000 on the security of 5000 acrea of land recently surveyed in the loangahua, and then about to be offered for sale at £1 per acre. He at the same time urged upon them that it was important that the trade of the mine should not be allowed to languish while the railway was in course of construction, arguing tbat the increased consumption to which the tramway would lead was calculated to create a traffic of which the railway would reap the advantages immediately on its being completed. To this proposition Mr Yogel objected on the ground tbat it would lead to the expenditure of a considerable sum, as that mentioned would in his opinion not be sufficient for the completion of the work, and further expressed his conviction that it would "result in retarding the developemenfc of the mine because it is clear that the Nelson Government desire to construct the tramway on tbat bank of the Grey which is, according to the information in the possession of the General Government, the wrong one for developing the mine to the best advantage." We must admit that this is the first time that we ever heard of a proposition to connect a valuable coalmine with the nearest port, by the shortest and easiest route, being objected to on the ground that it "might result in retarding the developement of the mine." Mr Yogel evidently had in his mind afc the time of writing the above extraordinary sentence, the report of Messrs Blackett and Hector, but he seems to have forgotten, as Mr Curtis points out in his reply, that the instructions to those gentlemen were not to confine themselves to enquiring into the best means of developing that portion of the Brunner mine now being worked on the north bank of the Grey, but' to report " on the best course of a railway to connect the coal mines on the Grey river " (by which is clearly meant those which exist on both sides of the river) " with a shipping port, with a view to promoting the public interests to the greatest extent, and' to securing the greatest development of the coalfield, and the best paying line." ; The position taken up by Mr Yogel appears' to be that because Messrs Blackett ; and Hector have reported' that the most favorable line for a railway to ; develop the Brunner mine on both of the Grey would be on'' 1 the south 'bank of thes river, therefore, a temporary line to connect thatjportion of theminq now 7^ihg worked pa7lh& jthV.ppj^^^ the development of , As^noti v convincing; 1 ; it^9e6m^*inawdiv^o*/''.'AXydZrA':a'Z>.yd ■■ A / ■■'''■"l : y. dXZdyy'y A:]

have been prompted rather by a feeling of pique than by a desire to promote. the welfare of the. province and of tbe colony* " Your Council bas:not seen fit to accept in their entirety the terms dictated by me, and, therefore, 'I shall take core not to afford them an opportunity of carryinctheir wishes into effect;" The .following extract from Mr Curtis' letter in reply to Mr. 1 Vogel's refusal to advarice the small sum required for this work will, we are sure, meet with the approval of all who read it, and for Mr Vogel's sake, as well as for that of the province, we trust that be will see his way to reversing his. decision, and thus .relieve himself of thechargeof "obstinacy" tp which he is exposing himself by the fine of action he is pursuing in this matter. Mr Curtis says : — " I propose that the tramway should be constructed as a temporary means of keeping up and increasing the supply of coal during the interval which must io any case occur before a permanent railway is made, and it will be seen that I raise no question as to the decision at which the Government have arrived with reference to tbe route, to be adopted for the permanent work authorised by tbe General Assembly. It appears to me that the proposed tramway would, at a comparatively small cost, and without risk to colonial funds, tend largely to develope the mine instead of to retard its development as the Government appears, upon what, ground I am uuable to discover, it would do. I must again express my great regret at the determination at which the Government have arrived, aud an earnest hope that they will yet consent to take the matter into re-consideration."