NELSON.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 668, 7 June 1870, Page 2

NELSON.

PKOCEEDINGS IN THE PKOVINCIAL COUNCIL. (fkom otjb own coeeespondent.) Thursday. A sudden turn of the steamer Murray's screw warned your correspondent on Tuesday morning that her cabin was not the place, and her hour of departure not exactly the time, for him to be engaged in writing even the most summary narrative of Nelson Council proceedings. The alternative was a compulsory visit to Motueka or a voluntary and immediate jumping on shore. The latter was, for obvious reasons, preferred, and thus there was imposed upon you, Sir, the alternative of extracting from the Nelson papers the abbreviated notices of West Coast matters which they might contain. Belying upon your acceptance of this alternative, and knowing the indifferent interest of any of the subjects which had been dealt with by the Council, I do not trouble you with a repetition or an amended edition of these newspaper reporte. I make exception only of one subject—the subject of the contract which had been entered into with the Government for the construction of river-bank protection works at Westport. The introduction of that subject proved to be an incident with a double moral—one of these intentionally directed at the

mover, Mr O'Conor, and the other unintentionally pointed by the Government toward a itself. The matter was mooted by Mr O'Conor in these three questions, addressed to the Provincial Secretary:—

Whether the" Government are aware that the contractors for providing ttone for the groin at Westport, are not proceeding with the work according to specifications ? Whether it is the intention of .Government immediately to cancel the contract, with a view to prevent any further delay in that important work ? Whether the Government were aware, when accepting the tender of the Baid contractors, that they were not likely to complete the work specified ?

Mr M'Mahon, between whom and Mr O'Conor there have since been some small passages of arms, objected to the last of the three 'questions as being insulting to the Government and to the Council, as an integral part of the Government. He considered it discreditable that sucb a question should appear on the notice paper. The Speaker explained that he had also taken notice of the objectionable character of the question, and would have excised it, had it not been that the Provincial Secretary had intimated his assent to its appearance, and his readiness to reply to it. Mr Donne thought the question should not be allowed to be put in the form in which it appeared on the notice paper as it contained an implied accusation. What Mr O'Conor desired to ascertain might have been obtained by the question whether or not sureties had been taken by the Government when the contract was entered into. Mr Eeid felt bound to defend his colleague. He thought the meaning given to the question depended upon the particular mental idiosyncracy of the reader. He had also at first read the question as an accusatory one, but it could and should be read simply as a question as to a possibly accidental ignorance of facts on the part of the Government. Mr O'Conor repeated the explanations he had given on putting the questions, stating that he made the inquiry at the instigation of several of the inhabitants of Westport, from whom he had received a telegram on the subject. The Provincial Secretary said he had no objections to answer the questions, and he was understood also to say that the contract referred to had been cancelled. He read the following telegrams which had passed between the Provincial and District Engineers, previous to the acceptance of the contract: — Tenders for Stone.—Twelve received. The four lowest are—Eaton and Winter, 5s lOd ; Eugene O'Conor, 6s 8d ; Courtney, 6s 9Jd ; Miller, 7s.—Dobson.

Tenders for Stone.—Accept lowest tender, if satisfied with contractors. Please reply at once.—Gbeenmeed.

Stone Tenders.—The lowest safest of the four. Shall accept at once.—Dobson.

There was a laugh—probably at the District Engineer's dictum as to the tender accepted being " safer" than O'Conor's. Then this colloquy came : —Mr M'Mahon: Are the Council to understand, Sir, that the Eugene O'Conor mentioned as a tenderer for the supply of stone, and the hon. member who has put these questions, are one and the same person ? The Provincial Secretary: I understand so. Mr Eeid: Did I hear the Provincial Secretary correctly when I understood him to say that the contract entered into has been cancelled? The Provincial Secretary : Tes ; the contract has been cancelled. Mr O'Conor: Not very creditable to the discretion of the Engineer, I think.—Whereupon, as the reporters say," the subject dropped." A mora " vexed question" than these questions of Mr O'Conor's was revived by the Provincial Auditor, Mr Jackson, addressing to the Speaker a letter desiring to be informed officially of the resolutions of the Council on the subject of unauthorised expenditure. By the Audit Act, it is compulsory on him to sue the Superintendent for any amount which he may expend without the authority of the Council, and, although it was believed by some at the time that the Auditor was acting irregularly by not at once taking action on his own responsibility, I understand that, in doing what he did, he was acting according to the original instructions from the Colonial Secretary. Of course the letter, though not in so many words, had reference to the sum paid to Mr Dent, and which the Council refused to authorise. As a reply Mr Gibba moved that the Speaker should transmit to the Auditor the resolutions of the Council, and thus the disagreeable subject was re-opened. In the discussion which followed, there was sufficient assertion on all sides of the absence of any feeling of vindictiveness on the part of the Council, and especially of the absence of any desire to see the inevitable penalty of £IOO imposed, but still it was thought that some admission of irregular character of His Honor's action should be made. The subject was got rid of for the evening by Mr Tarrant moving the "previous question." Subsequently, the real amount which was unauthorised—£37 10s, and not £62 10s as originally supposed—was paid into the Treasury by the Superintendent, and the Provincial Secretary, on Tuesday evening, brought forward a motion which, if passed, would have authorised the item, but thero was a misunderstanding as to the manner in which the matter was re-introduced—-the understanding being that, at least, somo mild expression of regret should be made—and when the motion was proposed, a number of councillors betook themselves to the tea.room.

Seeing this, and knowing that the votes of a clear majority of the Council were required, the Provincial Secretary withdrew the motion. The reason Councillors had for leaving the Chamber was simply that they did not want to oppose the motion, nor yet did they like to pass it, without something being said on the part of the Superintendent to mitigate his socalled offence. Ultimately, no doubt, the matter will be settled to the satisfaction of all parties, and the money will be authorised.

On Monday evening, the Council went into Committee to consider, clause by clause, the new Executive Bill. • From five o'clock until eleven, the members were engaged exclusively, in debating the clauses of the Bill as submitted by the Provincial Solicitor, or the amendments of which notice had been given by Mr Luckie. It was somewhat significant of the admitted necessity for such a Bill that no debate took place on the motion to go into Committee, though that, of course, was the proper time for any discussion of the general principle of responsibility versus that most unprincipled principle, irresponsibility of government. In fact, the experience of the session had gradually educated a majority of the members to look with some favor upon the proposed changes, and there was no outward show of opposition to the Bill, even on Committee, except on the part of Mr Gibbs. Though an estimable citizen, and an eager, earnest ferret into matters financial, Mr Gibbs is not very foreign in bis sympathies, and he exhibits an anxiety about the cost of anything relating to the goldfields which would almost lead an uninformed hearer of his arguments to imagine that the South-west Goldfields were a direct charge upon the revenue of Motueka. Doubtless, he is so far justified in his advocacy of economy by his own and others' argument that au Executive would not be necessary were the Superintendent to carry out his defined but somewhat impossible duty of conducting, in all necessary details, the administration of the government of the Province. But, in addition to that, be seems, or on this occasion seemed, to take so exclusively a Nelsonian or Motuekan view of matters, and exhibited such an illogical fondness for irresponsibility, that your member who supported him on the "West Coast as a candidate for the Superintendence? seemed to have less relish for him in the character of a miniature Joseph Hume. This member, (Mr Eeid J probably chagrined at having, at the commencement of the session, been induced to stifle his opinions upon this very subject, and at never having had an opportunity of letting off some of his supposed " happy thoughts " on the matter, exhibited an almost petulant persistence in insisting upon Mr Gibbs confining himself to the individual clause, instead of importing thegeneralquestion into the discussion, and there seemed to be also a disposition to keep Mr O'Conor close to the clauses, from an apparent suspicion that he was to break out bigly on Responsible Government, pure and simple ; but he of Erin's isle, for that one evening, " steered his bark " clear enough of debatable ground, and the passing of the clauses progressed satisfactorily, if slowly. On the surface, the worst feature of the discussion was the assumed dissent on the part of the Executive to the certainly somewhat indefinite clause: Superintendent shall also appoint two other persons to be members of the Executive Council, one of whom shall therein represent the interests of the Goldfields, and have a seat in the Provincial Council." The Executive exhibited a pleasing ignorance as to what this representation of the Goldfields meant, and wondered whether it was to be a paid office, and how it was consistent with cancelling Mr Kynnersley's appointment, and so on. Their seraphic innocence of information on this subject was very soon diminished by it being shown that it was the Government's own proposition that, " to promote a more satisfactory understanding between the goldfields and the more settled districts" there should be two additional members of the Executive, " one of them to be a representative for the South-West Goldfields." And it was shown that the wording was general because no distinctive name for the office had been selected. It was shown also that Mr Kynnersley's appointment was cancelled, not on account of anabsenceof necessity for such appointment, but of theunconstitutionaland, as some thought, the unwarrantable conditions he imposed; that such an officer, if responsible, had been contended for; that the bill was based on the theory that there could be such an allocation of other offices as would avoid any material increase of expense; that,even if made a district charge, the "West Coast could better afford to pay a moderate sum for active oversight than to incur an immoderate outlay by neglect; and that if Mr Kynnersley were the absolute desideratum, the Council was not closed against him in perpetuity, or probably for more than a few months. Mr Collins, a member of the Executive who is not more happy in the choice of his words than are some of the less experienced members, replied that the Government did not oppose the Bill, but they wished to place the " odium " of creating a new or paid office on the proper shoulders—rather an amusing wish for the Government to entertain in the face of the fact that it was upon a direct proposal of the Government that the whole Bill, and most especially

this clause of it, were based. The next clause upon which some little discussion took place was one to prevent members of the Council, except members of the Executive, holding offices of emolument, or contracts, under the Provincial Government. Mr O'Conor made a stand on the question of Councillors holding contracts, or " becoming contractors/' as the clause finally expressed. He contended that the principle, if applied at all, might with equal justice, be applied to Councillors receiving money in any form, under business arrangements. His amendments were, however lost, and the Bill, as amended, was reported to the House. Thursday, Noon. I have only time to say that the Executive Bill was read a third time last night, after a long discussion, a report of which I must send you, especially as there was a not altogether unexpected, but a somewhat inexplicable schism among the West Coast members. The Bill was carried by 10 to 4, the Provincial Secretary and Solicitor declining to vote. The majority for the Bill were Wastney, Baigent, M'Mahon, Tarrant, Mackley, Reid, Shephard, Donne, P. Kelling, and Luckie. The minority were Gibbs, O'Conor, Kelling, and Collins.