THE Evening Star. PUBLISED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3776, 3 February 1881, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1881.

At the County Council meeting" yesterday, a most animated discussion took place on the action of the "Warden and Mining Inspector in regard to the Council's application for a portion of the £10,000 appropriated last session for'roads, and tracks, and minor works on goldfields. A similar amount was voted darings the session of 1879, but the amount was all expended in the South ' Island. , From the tenor of the report, which .appears elsewhere, it would appear as if -several Councillors felt 'very strongly in" regard to the refusal of the Government to give , what was only-iair and reasonable, and which t should Jbot have been withheld. We are surprised -that -the Government refused to allow the Council to see the reports, and we consider that ib was not just to.the Council who ai'e all men of experience on the goldfield, and are intimately acquainted, with its acquirements, that the reason why their suggestions should Siave been put aside, while the recommendations of those who were incompetent to judge,- and who were grossly 'ignorant of the requirements of the field, were accepted. We were glad to see that the matter was calmly, fairly, and dispassionately discussed, and we consider that the Council's adoption of Cr Brown's resolution was the only course open to obtain what certainly, in the intei'est of the whole district, should be made , public, and thus, ; to a certain extent, endeavour to ramove' the strong dissatisfaction that "exists in the minds of the community in regard to the administration of the goldfield in this district at the present time. No doubt when- the House meets Sir Greorge Grey will be enabled' to put his hands in the -pigeon holes of the Goldfields Department when the returns asked for aro placed on the table "of the House, and exhibited to the whole' colony, showing:how the present Ministry have been, .purchasing political support by expending-the'votes referred-to in more 'favored localities 'than ours. The letter from Government is, as Cv Bag-uall put

it, a gross piece of impertinence, and it is clear that the officials in this district, referred to are actuated by the same selfish motives:as the Government, who in order to strengthen their position, sold themselves to Southern constituencies. We are surprised that the Attorney-General, who has hitherto taken such an interest in this field, which has been the salvation of Auckland, should sit culpably inactive, while his most assiduous and rapacious coadjutors .in the South are unjustly feathering their own nests at the expense of this district. The sooner an , alteration in the administration of this district is made the better it will be for this goldfielcL