PROVINCIAL EXPENDITURE ON THE WEST COAST.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 469, 23 February 1869, Page 2

PROVINCIAL EXPENDITURE ON THE WEST COAST.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times.)

Sir, —Your correspondent " Minority" asks if the inhabitants of your district are able to take charge of their own affairs, and answers that they are not. After mature deliberation of the* question in both aspects, financially and politically, I answer in the affirmative. I have made a few extracts from the Provincial quarterly Gazette, showing the amount of money collected and expended on the "West Coaftt Goldfields. The total receipts for the quarter from all sources were £28,253 15s Id. There was collected from Goldfields South-west Goldfields, £4330 28 Id; Consolidated revenue; fromG-revmouth and "Westport, £6OOO, Gold duty, £IO,IBB 18s, from which deduct land proceeds, leaving £9926 16s; receipts from the Brunner coalmine, £3304 3s Id; making a total of £23,561 Is 2d. This shows that the Goldfields contribute £23,561 1b 2d, while Nelson only contributes £4692 138 lid. Startling as these figures may appear to some, they are correct within a few hundreds received from the Collingwood goldfields. The expenditure on the goldfields during the same time was —Departmental, £6987 15s ; roads and public works, £3835 12s Id ; working expenses on Brunner coal-mine, £3013 10s 2d; total, £13,836 17s 3d. Is there anything more than this required to show to the most sceptical that the inhabitants of the district should have charge of their own affairs ? Let the warmest admirer of the present Provincial Government read the Gazette for themselves, and they will see that, while there is only £3835 12s Id laid out for maintaining and forming roads on the "West Coast, which contributes £23,561 Is 2d to the revenue, Nelson has about £IO,OOO, besides fifty per cent of the revenue spent in departmental expenditure, while only contributing £4692 13s lid to the revenue. It is simply absurd to say that you have not the men who could allocate some £BO,OOO judiciously, when, individually, many merchants turn over annually a sum equally large. At the present moment the majority

of the miners are working within a short distance of the sea-coast, Bolely from the fast that they cannot get provisions conveyed into the interior from the want of pro/per roads. Will the Nelson Government make your roads, or a Council composed of twentyone town and country members against your five members ? When the money for public roads, &c, is beiug scrambled for in the Council, your five members are as a shadow against a substance. The others say the money belongs to the Province ; and they want roads as well as the West Coast, and they out-vote your members. Politically you have no position in the house, either to advance or retard the development of the goldfields. Not only is the representation too small, but your members as a rule have not assisted the Executive by stating in a businesslike way what was wanted for the district they represented. A County Council will give gentlemen resident in the district a more direct interest in developing the mineral resources, economising in departments, seeing proper roads made, and judiciously expending money in reproductive works; and until this is the case, you may rest assured that the present state of things will continue. Tour money will be spent on public works in Nelson, and you will continue to be told that you have your share of revenue spent on the coast. —I am, yours &e. SCBTJTATOB. Nelson, Feb. 20.