PROVINCIAL COUNCIL. Wednesday, January 3.

West Coast Times, Issue 102, 15 January 1866, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL. Wednesday, January 3.

ADMINISTRATION OF WESTLAND, On the House going into Committee on the Golclfields Estimates, and the first Hem being proposed Mr Prosskr said ho rose to undertake a task to which ho was aware he could not give tho justice the magnitude and importance of tho subject required. lie must first endeavor to cleav away a great misconception that prevailed on this side of the province as to the manner in which the Goldfielda Representation Act had been received on the West Coast. The inhabitants' gave Mr. FitzGerald credit for being actuated by the best' possiblo v intentions in getting that Bill passed, and tho only rensou why so I little public spirit had been shown in the matter at Hokitika was the decision of the Provincial Solicitor that no one was eligible as a candidate whose name was not 'already on the electoral roll. He should have occasion in the course of his speech to make frequent mention of the name of Mr. Sale, and ho wished it to be clearly understood that ho bore that gentleman no ill-will whatever, and alluded to him solely in h;s public capacity. H,o should now proceed to speak of the policy adopted by tho Government in West Coast matters. First as regards tho harbor, generally considered a m'attor of tho fir.st importance. The Council had voted large sums for- harbor improvements at Lyttelton, and ho thought that Hokitika should also have received some consideration, whereas it wns not till October, when they requested that Mr. Balfour might bo allowed to inspect and report upon the harbor there, that the Goverment took any steps to enquire into what was wanted. In tho harbor department ngnin it had been found difficult to have even tho most necessary alterations carried out. Mr. Sale \vas waited on again nnd gain to no purpose, and not till tlic Improvement Committee made suggestions was was anything done. One of these suggestions was that beacons should be placed, instead of .what he might call' walking sticks, to indicate the" the channel, for tho want of which, and also for the want of proper attention to his duties on the part of the harbor master, many vessells -had been lost. Tne harbor master, however, "could scarcely be blamed, as he was expected to act us pilot besides attending to his ordinary official duties. Application had also boon made in vain to Mr. Sale for a life-boat, or for Manby's apparatus, which, at ' a trifling expense, would havo prevented a great loss of life. The snags, too, had not been cleared out of the rivers as they should have been done, aud this had occaisoned the loss ojf several lives. Then, with regard to the district roads : it had been said that large sums had been spent on them; ho did not know where', but he knew that very few had ,beon finished, and that they were in a most disgraceful state. There was the road to tho Waimea, for instance, one of tho largest gold producing dis- j triots on the West Coast. Nine months ago a public meeting was held for the purposo of raising subscriptions to form this road. The inhabitants had contributed half tho amount, and Government was so shabby as not to give the district credit for the amount they had laid out themselves. In his opinion, tracks for uniting the gold-fields district should bo made entirely at the expense of the Government. On tho road towards Kanieri nothing had been done, though a track had been made in connection with Browning's Pass, but one or two bridges were required to make it of any use ' for drays. Mr. Sale had boon asked months ago to mako a road this side of Kanieri, for the purpose of carrying provisions to the minors. Tho rato of freight to Kaniori was £4 a ton, but if tho road wore made it would bo reduced to 20s. A track was required to tho south of tho Hokitika river, and if the gentleman at the head of affairs had regarded the interests of tho inhabitants it would long since have been made. As to tho Arnold-road, he need only rofer to tho description given by the correspondent of tho Grey Kiver, who had with perfect truth described it as an interminable swamp. L5OOO had been voted 'for this road, but iho work had never been finisho'l. The principle adopted by the Government seemed to be to extract mqney from tho West Coast in every way possiblo ; on every occasion tho first question asked was whatmqney could bo contributed, Tho next item wa» punts and bridgos,' nnd hwo again »9t))}ng had b^ndon.^, ThW9

was no punt on the Arahura, the Tercmukau, tho Otira, and Saltwater Creek. Tracks also should have been cut into the ranges, but that had been entirely neglected. With regard to town improvements, the people of Hokitika had had great trouble with the Commissioner, lie had been waited on four several times ; the first time he declined to do anything, the second titno ho said he would see about it, the third time he had asked to bo furnished with plans and specifications, but tho surveyor had been too busy to prepare them. These operations had spread over threo months, whereas .everything might have been settled in a fortnight. The next thing he had to speak about was Gibson's Quay. There could bo no doubt that the accommodation provided by tho wharf was insufficient; vessels had • sometimes waited eleven days before, being ablo to go alongside and discharge jtheir cargo ; and tho inhabitants ' had waited on Mr Sale to request that it might be extended, but he had distinctly refused to do so except in a direction where tho publio interest did not require it. Tho protection of the wharf was necessary for the benefit of the town. The Government made twelve chains, but another - twelve chains were loft, which, if not also made, would leave the town liable to be washed away. Mr. Sale had been ' waited on on sevcral v ocoasious, and had agreed to give a sum of money equal to whatever might be collected among tlio inhabitant's. They had raised between . £1200 and .£ISOO, but on going ogam to Mr. Sale to ask for the promised amount, he had refused to give it. Captain Gibson, who fully recognised tho importance of the work, stated that he had seen Mr. Sale on the subject, and had recommended him to provide onehalf tho cost. If this work had been completed several .chains of land now washed away would have been preserved, and tho imminent danger to whioh the Government township is exposed would havj been averted. With regard to the sale of rural land, he - could not say that he agreed with tho ; idea of the Government, that the way to encourage tho settlement of the population on the soil was to keep up the price of the land. In his opinion, land N should not be sold at all, as they might bo parting with auriferous 'country ; it would answer every purpose if the land were leased for a term of years, as" in Otago . and the Victorian gold-fields. In the mining ■ rules several x alterations were necessary. The decisions of the Wardens had generally been satisfactory, but ifc was necessary that something further should be done, as by establishing Mining Boards, which would be very acceptable and a benefit to the whole district. He now came to the question of town rp- ' serves, a very soro subject with the minors on the West Coast. The piece of ground from which the Commissioner wished to keep them back was swampy and unsuited for building purposes, but as Mr. Sale had issued a notico caution- % ing minors against working there, two ' who transgressed were arrested, and not having money to pay the fine, were imprisoned for twenty-four hours. A mass meeting was held, and resolutions passed, a deputation waited on Mr. Sale, who,' after considerable discussion, decided that diggers should be allowed to work on condition of their depositing L 2 10s. each as a guarantee for the filling up of the holes. These terms were thought; • to be too stringent, as the men paid L 3 for their miners' rights, and it was proved that their work would not spoil the ground for building, and he 'believed the decision, though issued, had never been carried out. The management of the hospital, the next subject he wished to remark upon, had been vory fully discussed in the local papors. There is no doubt that it is disgracefully managed. - • Tho size of the building was a dis-* grace to any community ; it would only hold twelve or thirteen persons, • was lined; with nothing but calico,, and covered ivith an iron roof. Several depuations had waited upon Mr Sale to beg him to carry out the necessary alterations, but they could not prvail on him either to establish N an hospital on such a scale as the district required, or to contribute towards an hospital supported by publio subscriptions. Nothing whatever was done. Sickness had been very; prevalent, and the sick people were carried from house to house because they could not get proper accommodation. It was not till the, .middle of November that Mr Sale agreed to add an additional wing to the building, on condition that' the committee which waited on him to urge the request that he should do so, would hand over the money. These things were calculated to create much' ill-feeling against the Government. There was not even a clergyman appointed to attend tho hospital, nor "any dispenser from whom the oui-door sick could obtain medicine. A memorial signed by no less than 500 of the inhabitants had been forwarded to the Government on the 4th September, and they received a reply to the effect that Government were averse to tho proposal contained in the memorial, and believed that to secure an efficient management of tho hospital it must bo under their own contro.l. LMr Grosser read tho letter rece'ved from Government.] Even now they were only tol<J that Government would take the state of thehospital into consideration, though. Ibng before this tluy inght. and should havo organised a plan for placing it on a satisfactory footing. Ho believed that Government had no con- / trol at all over tho articles supplied in tho hospital, which were far from being what they ought to bo. He considered the Ordinance passed at a recent session ' on the subject of hospitals was a very good ono, and should wish to see it brought into force in Hokitika at once* He now came to the West Coast road. There could bo no doubt that it w»s an outrageous extravagance as regards 1 West Coast interest «, and that their revenue Mas bpiug swamped by tho enormous expenditure upon that road, v Ho had b.>en told tr at it would b 'nofit the Wstf Coast, but to QQuld n,gt gey

how. It was absurd to supp ;>ose that goods coiild ever be suppli ,|ed from Christchurch. By the latest re Hums he saw that 1200 tons of goods 1 md been landed at IlokStika from stetv (Hers and sailing vessels at nn average vi lie of £6 per ton, and it was not at all li kely that goods could bo conveyed at that rate over 160 miles of road. The people of Hokitika felt strongly that if they had to pay one half the cost, as Go vernment proposed, their revenue wou" Id be unjustly taken from them, and diverted fromthosClegitimate purposes to which it ought to be applied. Supp osing the dray road to cost £90,000 (t hougji in his opinion it would cost a g reat deal more, to say nothing of the a; anual expenses in keeping it in ropr iir), and, adding the proposed expem lituro on the Ilurunui track and that b .y Browning's pass, it would amoun t to upwards of £100,000, of ■« ihich the "West Const was .asked, to pay one half, or £50,000— j& largo deduction from its revenue j, which would leave it in a bad posit lion as regards the undertaking of | necessary works. Taking this sum inco" jajunction with the expenditure on the , escort he did not see any probability of the.wcrks being carried on at the cost set down in the estimates. There was agr eat variation in people's ideas on these $ matters. The first estimate of the cost < >f- making a road to the West Coast was only Ll2OO or LHOO yet now Go vernment found it necessary to spend L 90.00 0; nor did they mind cnteriug uj )on it and spending L 20,000 without ( jonsulting the Council, though when a si naH sum was asked to open the Him iinui tradk they professed themselves uno bio to incur the least expenditure wit hout first obtaining the Council's sane tion. As to the escort, he need not f »y much about thnt, as it was generally admitted to be a mistake ; but ho mus t remark that having looked through tl ie correspondence laid on the table, '• ho saw nothing to justify the outlay that had taken place (/ The Banks dist linctly refused to send gold xmless Go vernment would guarantee its safe' , delivery. He should propose that tl ie escort be transferred to Hokitika. Nor need he say much about the modest charge of L7OOO for the services of the; 3scorfc ( for twelve months. It had been t tarted for the sole object of bringing go Id to East Canterbury, yet Government had the coolness to charge the sum ■ )f L7OOO. against the West Coast ; and .I.this was called spending tlie revenues o f tho West Coast within tho district. I f this was way Government proposed i t6 spend their revenues, they had bettt ir got what had often been discussed, bu .t what lie should regret to, see, so long : is it could possibly bo avoided — sopai ation. If their money was'to be takei i and their district roads neglected, all i ;'or tho sake of opening' up a road from tli c East, then it was time that they retired ,- t Had Government studied the inte rest of tho West, Coast by developing i is resources as -much as -possible, the ' inhabitants would not grudge the cxp( mditure of a reasonable sum in impi oving their communication with Christ church ; but the advantages were veiy trifling, and not such as to justify the extravagant amount that had been . laid out. The Council had been reminded in liis Honor's speech th at the Now Provinces Act had h jen repealed, but, it was added, th? ' Government saw no reason why th- 3 interests of tho West Coast should n< >t still bo considered. Such an allusi< m was in bad taste, and it was not agi .-ceablo to have flung in their teeth, the assurance that sepai ation had been re ndercd impossible. For his own part ; he considered that they had as good a chance as over of ."obtaining separatic b, though he should much prefer t< > sec the revenues of the West ' doast properly disposed and to rema in attached to Canterbury. He hopec I that in passing the estimates lion, men ibers would endeavour so to apporti on tlio various accounts- as to remove the feeling of discontent that at pro icnt existed. It was an unpleasant dut y to find fault with what had been di me, but Government had declared the mselves anxious that all causes of comj rtaint should be made known, and his r amarks were not prompted by any ill- will against the Government or its r epresontative at • Hokitika. He hoped tho same mistakes would not occui .• again, but that , the district would rec seive that degree of consideration to whi ch it was justly entitled.) - The Secretary for Pi iblic Works said he was glad the reside its on the West Coast had had an oppo rtunity of expressing their grievances in the Council, and he gave the- 1 hon. r lember credit for tho moderate tone in . which he had stated his views. Wit hout going into the subject at any g reat length, he would refer to one or ' two points that had been brought for ward. ' First as regarded the harbor ; the lion, member had complained that the Government had waited till Octobo r before securing the services of Mr ] klfour to report upon the harbor. , Th c answer to that was, that it was not til I the winter that the West Cbasfcjissunu id its present importance. When ho. was there tho ' population was not more than from 10,000 to 15,000 sou 1 Is; the great dif- ♦ ficulties of the harbor did not become apparent tilPtho white jl,,j 1 ,, and the neces- • „ sity for any improvemc hit had not been suggested. The Government,e rnment, however, had already taken somfe steps, although I the first letter laid <)n tho table was dated a« late as OctoJbor. As to tho * signal staffs, which lihe hon. member (< ( < called - walking sticks. , it was true that \ they wore small, but«t hey had been put 1 up at the suggestion 0 I. Captain Gibson when he fast went i;o Hokitika, and wore then thought sufficient. When the Improvement Coramittce suggested an alteration, it appeared from the hon. member's own accouu |L, that tho alteration was made. As to tho surf-boats and Manby's apparatus, which it was said would have, prevented loss of life, lie was not aware th;it any loss of lifo had occurred on th<> coast from gbipwrepk, [Mr Pro&ei' explained that ho ytfeyred. fo tilQ\ipW.ttfog of boa^ wh.i'T)

crossing tho bar.) Tho apparatus would , be of no use in such cases. Rockets were useful in saving life in cases of shipwreck, because a ship held together for some time, but a boat would bo capsized long before the rockets could be got to tho spot. Captain Gibson had reported that surf, boats would be of <flo use, and in facV would do more harm than good by tempting persons to land when it was not prudent to do so. As to the manage-, ment of i\mds ho admitted that the Grey and Arnold road was boggy, but this was an instance of the difficulties Government had to contend against in making roads in such a.country. Little as the lion, member might think of that road he could assure him that L7OOO had been spent upon it. Then as to bridges and punts; all these things were a question of money. If Government had had the money to spend, the complaints of the lion, member would have been justifiable, but tho case was quite the reverse. Not that he admitted that Government would do right in making tracks for prospecting' or as a matter of speculation, however large the revenue. When gold was actually discovered and population attracted to the spot, Government might bo expected to make a road, but the cutting of tracks through the bush for prospecting purposes was a matter that should bo left to privato enterprise. As regarded the town improvements, in the absenco of recent information, ho coukl not reply to the remarks of the lion, member on that head; he gathered, however, that Mr Sale was willing to supplement contributions from private sources for the improvement of the town. AVith regard to Gibson's quay, the objection to its being extended as proposed was that that part of tho town was practically unproteotable ; and if tho quay could be made at all at a reasonable cost, which was open to doubt, it was likely to be washed away. It was not a fair chargo to make that a vessel had had to wait eleven days before being able to get alongside the' wharf; allowance must be made for the amazing rapidity of the growth of the place, which had unavoidably overrun the facilities for trade. The same remark applied to tho hospital arrangements. He should not go into details on that point, ho only wished to remark that the experience the Government shad had in Christchurch fully confimed them in their opinion that the hospital ought to be kept under their own control. Thon came the question of the West ( Coast road. Now all that had been said that evening went to prove one thing, that a reason for so many complaints coming from the other side of the province was that it had been cut off from communication with Christchurch. If tho two divisions *of the province could bo brought into closer communication, he was persuaded that there would not bo half so many complaints, and that a vast amourft of misunderstanding 'would bo cleared wvay. As to the escort liemustbeg to say that Government had sufficient encouragement from the B.mks to go into that undertaking, and ho believed that had not direct steam communication been opened from Hokitika" to Melbourne, tho "gold would have been brought to Christchurch. Tho sale of rural lands was a subject that he would take another opportunity of discussing, but he might remark that in other mining districts tho diggers complained of not being able to buy land. It had been said that the principlo of Government appeared to bo to extract as much money from tho West Coast as possible ; ho appealed to figures to prove that statement was not correct. It was an assertion directly in tho teeth of actual facts — an entirely unfounded charge. The Government did not wish to take any ironey from the West. Coast, they had not taken it, and did not intend to take it in future. But he denied tho right of the inhabitants of Hokitika to tulle of the revenue of Ilokitika us their revenue ; it was not 'merely thoirs ; it was New Zealand revenue, and there would be no injustice in applying a portion of it to tho general work of governing and improving the colony. It had been stated that the present policy of this Government would lead to separation. He for one was not averse to it. In the case of a district like the southern part of this province, which was geographically and materially a part of Canterbury, with common interests, he should greatly deplore separation. But where, as in the case of Wostlnnd, by its geographical position, industrial pursuits, and commercial connexions, it was virtually a separate community, he had not the same objection. It f the representatives of Westlanfl could go to the General Assembly and show that they had the materials and resources for a satisfactory Provincial Government, ho would not oppose thoir attempt to obtain separation. Tho Canterbury Government had honestly endeavored to do its duty to the district ; but ho believed that no Government in Christchurch w/nild ever bo able to give .satisfaction in Westland.