PUBLIC MEETING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 185, 4 September 1878, Page 2

PUBLIC MEETING.

A crowded meeting was held in the Provincial Hall last night to consider the Public Works Statement in its relation to Nelson. In the absence of His Worship the Mayor, who had left for Wellington in the morning, the chair was taken by Mr Barnicoat, the Chairman of the Waimea County Council, who, having read the advertisement convening the meeting went on to say: — Residents in the country, like himself, were perhaps a little too remiss in not attending meetings called for the discussion of matters affecting the public welfare, but that was perhaps not so much owing to neglect as to the full confidence they reposed in the ability and energy of those living in the town. The present occasion, however, was one on which no individual interested in the district was justified in holding back. It was a most critical point in the history of the province, a more critical one— and he spoke a3 one of the oldest settlers— than had ever occurred before. One of the leading principles of the public works scheme propounded in 1870 was that it was to benefit all alike; the whole country was to reap the advantages of it. Iv proof of this he would quote from Mr Vogel's Financial Statement of 1870, in which the scheme was introduced to Parliament. He said:— "Why should the inhabitants of one province submit to a lengthened period of depression whilst the means they partly contribute are devoted to consolidating the prosperity of another province? It is all very well to talk about narrow views, but one body of settlers is entitled to just as much consideration as another. If the settlers in any province understood that they were occupying an outlying district which would only be entitled to attention after more favored districts had been served, we might then deal with this colony as we would with another; but it is quite otherwise. Each Provincial community has been taught to believe itself on a par with its neighbors, and a colonizing scheme, to aid which the credit of the whole colony was pledged would be looked upon as a gross injustice if it did not provide for due consideration to every province. This is why we must pledge ourselves to a large scheme if we wish to do justice to all." These were Mr Vogel's own words, and if he were here now he could not express more pertinently the grievance, to protest against which they had now met together. What a comment upon Mr Vogel's opinions then expressed was the Statement just issued! Every part of the colouy from end to end was to be benefitted, but now it was proposed not only to exclude Nelson from such benefits, but also to keep her back, to reduce her population, and to injure her trade. There would be 2237 miles of railway in the colony constructed at a cost of sixteen millions, and of these Nelson had but 43 miles, of which 20 miles were a coal railway. Every part of the colony had received consideration except Nelson. He hoped no strong language would be used during the evening, for that was usually resorted to to uphold a weak cause. Ours was not a weak one, and the strongest language that could be used was the plainest statement of facts.

Mr Acton Adams moved " That the essence of the Public Works policy was the construction of a main trunk line through both islands, and the people of Nelson supported the policy on that ground; and by the Public Works Statements of successive Governments and by the Railways Act, 1873, the line from Nelson to the West Coast and thence to Canterbury was recognised as part of that main trunk line." The importance of connection with the West Coast districts had long been recognised, and ten years ago Nelson had tried to obtain it, but New Zealand was not then so well known in the London money market as now, and there was consequently a great difficulty in obtaining the necessary funds. TheucamethePublic Works scheme, tbe main principle of which, as enunciated by Mr Yogel, was the construction of a main line from North to South as being the scheme which contained the truest elements of greatness. In ibe Financial Statement in 1873 he said:— "The Government recoguise that, apart from the question whether there are mineral resources in the district, it will sooner or later become necessary, in order to the completion of a trunk line through the Middle Island, that Nelson and the West Coast should be connected by railway." And again.—" We shall ask for authority to fill up the three gaps not yet provided for in the main line between North Canterbury and the Bluff; and to make a survey with the view of deciding upon a main line which will bring Nelson and the West Coast into communication with Canterbury, and also, if it should be found expedient, into communication with Marlborough." Here was communication with Nelson distinctly promised. Then there was the Act

of the same year in which the line was actually authorised. In 1874 Mr Richardson, the then Minister for Public Works, again referred to this railway aa part of the recognised main trunk line in the following words: —"The vote of £10,000 for preliminary surveys being nearly exhausted, we shall ask for a sufficient sum to enable us to have full and complete surveys made of the line through from Eoxhill to Brnnnerton, and thence to Canterbury, and from Greymouth to Hokitika, as well as for such portions of the connecting links of the trunk lines a 9 the staff at our command will enable us to do. It has been stated by my honorable colleague, the Colonial Treasurer, in his financial statement, that the Government consider the railway scheme, as adopted hy Parliament, embraces the main trunk line from Kaipara, in the North, to Auckland \ thence by Mercer to Newcastle, and southwards to Wellington ; the railways from Napier and Taranaki joining the trunk line at such points aa, on survey hereafter, may be found to be the best. Then from Nelson to fiokitika, the main trunk line running through the valleys of the Buller and Grey and into the Amuri by the best routes procurable, and passing through Canterbury and Otago to the Bluff, together vith the line from Invercargill to Kingston, the line to Port Chalmers in Otago, and that from ! Christchurch to Lyttelton in Canterbury." The public works scheme at the time of its j introduction was discussed all over the colony and met with general approval, and since its adoption no part of the colony but Nelson had bad reason to regret having supported it, but if we were to be treated as now proposed, better for us that it bad never come into existence. The Inland Communication Committee in 1875 had devoted much attention to this West Coast line, and in all probability a Compauy to carry it out would have been formed had not the Government stepped in, and proposed, through Mr Curtis, that private enterprise should be abandoned in favor of the Government, who proposed to give it to us. Mr Sclanders had much pleasure in seconding the resolution. Public speaking was not one of his accomplishments, and the fact of his being on the platform that evening was the best proof he could give of the interest he took in the matter. He wished earnestly to impress lipoft all the importance of what they were now doing. AH were deeply interested ; men of property, the trader, the professional man, the citizen, tbe laboring man, each one would feel the shoe pinch if the present Government scheme was carried out without modification. If Nelson was to be left shut out in the cold we should have nothiug left but our climate, and we could not live entirely upon that. If we were treated as proposed we could not possibly maintain even our present position, but must retrograde, and would probably be worse off five years hence than now. The resolution was then put and carried unanimously. Mr Shephard moved, "That under the scheme how proposed to fill up the other gaps in the trunk system^ the construction of the Northern part of the main line in the Middle Island is indefinitely postponed, to the injury of the people resident in Nelson and Marlborough." If this line were not constructed, Nelson could^not hold her own against other parts of the colony, her trade wotild fall off, and her land decrease in value. He would sbow how Nelson had suffered from past neglect while other parts had been participating in the full advantages of the public works scheme. In proportion to population the expenditure in Nelson had been one quarter of what it had been in Canterbury and Otago. one sixth of that in Wellington, and not one-tenth of that in Hawke's Bay. The result of this expenditure had been that the population had increased in Canterbury 70 per cent, in Otago 56, {Continued on Fourth Page.)

{Continued from 2nd page.) in Wellington. 72, and in Hawke'a Bay, 127. It was only fair to suppose that Nelson would have marie equal piograss if the Government had respected their engagements, and given her an equal chance. Mr Macandrew made a great point of the amount of land .hat was to be opened up, which would be sufficient to cover the cost of the proposed branch lines in Canterbury and Otago. We could show the same inducement. There were 900,000 acres fit for occupation that would be opened up by the line proposed by the Inland Communication Committee, a considerable portion of which was estimated as "first-class," nnd was worth a Bum that would go a long wsy towsrJs meeting the cost of the railway. The Act of leet session bad fixed tbo lowest price of Crown lands at £1 per acre, co that it was fair, when much of it was above that value, to estimate tho whole 900,000 acres as worth £900,000. But it was not merely the land, but the large amount uf mineral country it would be opeued up country were miners could do well and earn goad wages if the coßt of carriage were cheapened. There were to be two lines to the West Coast, one from Otago, and one from Canterbury, and unless ours was undertaken at the same time the irade would all find i ts way to those two centres, while not a chance would be afforded to Nelson. The arguments used by Mr Macandrew with reference to the coal trade wonld apply to Nelson equally with Lyttelton, indeed, with greater force, for the line would not only tap the Grey, but thin Mount Rochfort coalfields. He could not see why Lyttelton eitutitod as it was in a district that had already been so largely fed by the .public purse should have such an advantage, while Nelson continued to be abut out. Nelson had been neglected by many Ministries. By a shuffla of the cards the present Government had come into power, and we trusted to them to redress our wrongs. Hitherto it had acceeded to the requests made by Nelson, and he had sufficient confidence iv it to believe that the present appeal would not be made in vain. The Bishop of Nelson said that he did not regard this as a political meeting orhe should not take part in it, but he attended for the purpose of giving expression in common with his fellowcitizens to a deep eenee of what he felt was a very great wrong that was being done to this place. It was a serious wronjr, in that it was an infringement of a previous contract, of the non-per-formsneo of whfch every one who within the l_t_t five years had laid out a single pound in land in NeUon had a right to complain. It wa. a wrong to the large property-holder, it was a wrong to the working men, whose comfortable little homes doited about the outskirts of the town were the admiration of everyone who visited Nelson. What (heMinisterial proposals amounted to wag this, that, if carried out, all business would be stopped, and a trade that had been built up and fostered here would be destroyed. Previous speakers. had quoted from reports and papers of five years ago; be would read au extract from one of 1878 from the Minister's Statement: — "If," he says, " we can come to an arrangement as between ourselves — an honorable understanding which ought to be held as binding as the laws of the Medes and Persians," &c. And while he was making use of these worde he was deliberately proposing to break [through an honorable understanding entered into between the Legislature and the people of Nelson in 1873. Mr Sclanders had referred to our climate, and said we could not live upon that, but he did not agree with him in that, for he believed that our climate might be made a marketable quantity of considerable value if the place were only brought within the reach of people. He knew of families with incomes of from £400 to £700 a year, who under such conditions would come here from the South, from Melbourne, and from India to live. He would second the resolution, which was then put to the meeting and carried unanimously. Mr W. White (Chairman of the Waimea Road Board) proposed " That this meeting views with the utmost alarm the proposal of the Government to entirely exclude this district from all participation in the new works to be \ undertaken within the next five years." He said that if he had not perused the Public Works Statement he should have felt some diffidence in coming before a Nelson public meeting to express an opinion condemnatory of the policy of .the present Government, who he had hitherto believed were desirous of doing justice to the long neglected district of Nelson, but after reading it he had come to the conclusion that we were again to be left out in the cold. They seemed to have entirely ignored the Act- of 1873, and to have made up their minds to be guilty of a breach of faith with the people of Nelson. The only remedy he could see for this Btate of things was for each constituency to bind their representatives to unite in opposing a Government that would do them so great an injustice. He did not like to speak in harsh terms of the Government, but when they were so palpably unfair it was time we looked about for a remedy. Mr T. Harley seconded the resolution, and aaid that he felt very sore at the gross injustice done to the province. He then expressed at some length his views on the incidence of taxation. Mr A. Harley did not think the resolutions were worded half strongly inough, He then proceeded to find

fault with the members and especially with the representative of his own district who had not condescended to call his constituents together during the recess. The resolution was carried by acclamation. Mr H. Curtis said that by unanimously passing the foregoing resolutions the meeting had expressed its approval of tho facts stated in them. "We were to be denied the main trunk line to which we wero manifestly entitled, and to be deprived of money for roads and bridges as it was all to be expended in Otago and Canterbury. Our members were but a small minority, but a compact body of a few men might make themselves felt, and individually ho would like to see our representatives obstruct the business and use every constitutional means in their power to insist upon justice being done to Nelson. He would not, however, ask the meeting to endorse this opinion, but would invite them to agree to the following resolution: — "That the Nelson representatives be requested to bring the foregoing resolutions under the notice of the Government, and before the Assembly, and to use their utmost endeavors to procure some material modifications of the Ministerial proposals, which, if carried into effect, will inflict such great injustice upon those residentin the northern part of this Island."

Mr Levestam said that some of the previous speakers attempted to cast the whole blame- on the Government, but he thought the fault lay principally with our representatives of whom Hansard never recorded that they had stood up in the House and raised their voices against the unjust treatment Nelson had received. He would second the resolution.

This was carried unanimously, as was one moved by Mr Shephard thanking Mr Barnicoat for his admirable conduct ia the chair.