GREY DISTRICT ELECTION.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 457, 26 January 1869, Page 2

GREY DISTRICT ELECTION.

Mr Hennelly, who is a candidate for election as a member of the Provincial Council for the Grey district, has addressed a meeting at Charleston. Mr Neale was in the chair. Mr Hennelly, in the course of his address, referred to the desirability of constituting Charleston a municipality. He should be glad not alone to see Charleston erected one, but also other towns on the Goldfields of sufficient importance to undertake the management of local affairs. There were many little requirements which at present had to be referred to Nelson, entailing much loss of time and inconvenience, and, in most instances, resulting in no benefit to those parties interested, which it would be the province of a municipal body to attend to. A large sum of money would be thereby made available for local purposes, and any work would be more promptly, efficiently, and cheaply carried out. He had, therefore, no hesitation in expressing his thorough approval of municipal institutions, and his opinon that the circumstances of Charleston and other goldfields' townships in the district of South-west Nelson were ripe for the introduction of such institutions. They would doubtless be anxious to hear his views in regard to the present separation movement. He' must confess that he was in no position at that moment to give his opinion upon the matter, and before so doing he should require to understand on what basis the promoters proposed to place the affairs of the County—how the seats were to be distributed, what would be included in its administration, the probable revenue and expenditure, and other important details. This much he would, however, undertake to say —that whatever decision the bulk of his constituents arrived at, he should feel bound to use his best endeavors to give effect to. On being requested to give his views upon the Nelson and Cobden Railway scheme, Mr Hennelly said that the Province did not possess the funds to undertake such a work, and as the people of one portion of the province would reap no adequate benefit from it, and the inhabitants of the West Coast none whatever, he had no difficulty in expressing his entire disapproval of the undertaking.