NELSON PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 969, 10 May 1872, Page 2

NELSON PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

The Council was opened on the 30th ult., with only a small attendance of members. The bad weather and tern, porary stoppage of communication prevented the appearance of the majority. Those present were : —The Speaker (Mr Barnicoat), the Provincial Solicitor (Mr H. Adams), the Provincial Secretary (Mr Alfred Greenfield), the Provincial Treasurer (Mr J. Shephard) Messrs Luckie, Donne, Gibbs, and Tarrant.The rest of the members have since put in an appearance. The following is a resume of the Superintendent's opening speech : After referring to the repeal of the Payments to Provinces Act, and consequent diminishing of anticipated revenue, the falling off in gold duty and goldfields revenue, and recapitulating the chief points of action in matters sanctioned at the last sitting of the Council. His Honor said the Highway Boards Empowering Act, 1871, having restored to Provincial Councils the power to legislate upon the important local questions to which it relates, I shall ask your sanction to bring that measure into operation in this Province, and bills will be submitted for your consideration, providing for the management of road districts, and for the improvement of towns upon the simple and inexpensive plan which has for so many years been in operation in the City of Nelson, to the general satisfaction of its inhabitants. These measures can now be made available upon the goldfields equally with the more settled parts of the Province, but I do not propose to extend their operations to any district in which a large majority of the inhabitants are engaged in gold-mining pursuits, unless I am encouraged to do so by the general wish of the inhabitants themselves. The Legislature having enacted in the second part of the Immigration and public Works Amendment Act, 1871, that a sum not exceeding fourelevenths of the share of this Province in the Middle Island Railway Fund may be expended upon roads within that part of the South West Goldfields south of the northern boundary of the Buller Electoral District, and the sum thus available being about £24,000,1 recommended that ft should be appropriated in the following manner:—£l6,ooo in roads connecting the Inangahua reefs with the ports of the Buller and Grey ; .£6,000 in roads in the central part of the Buller Valley, tending to connect the reefs with the agricultural and pastoral

districts, and also with those of tJ| Province of Canterbury, and £lsoo^R a road from Brighton to Bazorbac2M[ completing the coast road from \\ r ej ß port to Cobden. '"mm The Colonial Government, I regrJH to say, determined upon spending tB whole sum upon the works first J9 ferred to, on grounds which will appe^K in the correspondence on the subj^^K when placed in your hands. B The discovery of auriferous quaJK^ reefs in the Valley of the Inangabyßfe has assumed an importance which jßp/ did not present on the occasion of tq^B last meeting. . There is no longjf room to doubt that these reefs »;ii» afford remunerative employment to^Ml large mining population, and the faJB that they are situated in the heart ofl| the Province has a significance to whiclß I need scarcely direct your attentiojjH The surrounding country containglW considerable amount of land availablaß for settlement, and I am sure you wilMt agree with me that every facilibß should be afforded for its permanentM occupation. 'E The survey of a first block of S(JOOaHp acres in the Ihangahua Valley, intnffl sections of 50 acres each, is now nearly M completed, and instructions have been IB; given for a similar survey of a secondß block of the same area. B These sections will be offered for IB sale by public auction in accordance^ with the land regulations of 1863. 8? The construction of a dray rcdH from the Arnold to the Ahaura, ton complete the communication betweenfl G-reymouth and Beefton, I hope tol see accomplished with your concur.H rence by means of as large a sum ajl can be spared for the purpose i'rot&B current revenue, aided by grants offl land under the conditions prescribed ■ in the 41st section of the Waste Lands Act of 18G3. A bill to empower me to make the necessary contracts, and to grant lacd in payment, will be submitted to you. Provision will be made in the Sj, timates for the completion of a road sufficient for the purpose of stocl driving between the Ahaura and tbj Amuri, so as to connect the Grey ani Inangahua valleys with the stock pro. duciny districts of the Amuri, and also of Canterbury. Proposals will he submitted to you, having for their object the formation of a special settlement in the centra! part of the Buller Valley, combined with the completion of a road available for stock-driving between the Owen and the Lyell, connecting the Inangahua reefs with the stock-producing districts in the northern part of the Province, and with those of the Province of Marlborough. These proposals will be founded mainly upon the provisions of the 61st and succeeding sections of the"lm. migration and Public Works Act, 1871," but with the modification that any land set apart for special settlement shall be open to persons already

resident in the Colony, upon the same terms as to newly arrived immigrants. To effect these objects the assent of the G-eneral Assembly will be required, and your sanction will be asked to the preparation of a measure which will enable me to apply the principle of special settlements to the Grey Valley, and any other part of the pro. vince containing land adopted to the purpose, as well as to the particular locality referred to in the preceding sentence. The late discovery of coal, of a like quality with that found at Mount Rochfort and the Grey, in the River Ngakawho, is of great interest to the province and to the Colony. I have requested the Colonial Government to direct a scientific examination oi'* the locality, but I am not yet in receipt of a reply. In the meantime two reports by the Harbor-master of Westport upon the capacity of the Ngakawhao as a coaling port will be placed in your hands, from which you will see that any of the local coasting Bteamers will have have no difficulty in taking in coal at the pit's mouth, while, if there should prove to be sufficient inducement for the a railway, could be made at a very moderate cost from the Ngakawhao to Westport, a distance of about 18 miles. The rising importance of the Inangahua Valley appears to me to establish a just claim to its formation into a separate electoral district. A bill will therefore be presented to you making provision for the election of a member of the Provincial Council, for the Inangahua, including the adjacent parts of the Buller Valley now forming part of the electoral district of the Buller. On Wednesday, on the motion of Mr Donne, a Select Committee consisting of Messrs M'Mahon, Reid, Luckie, the Speaker, aud the mover was appointed to prepare a reply to the Address. members' honorarium. Mr Gibbs moved, " That a committee be appointed by lot to take into consideration the question of members' honorarium." He desired to revert to the state of things that existed in 1866. The motion was not seconded. PUBLIC-HOUSE LICENSES ON QOtDFIELDS. Mr Donne asked the Provincial Solicitor, Whether it is the intention of his Honor the Superintendent, during the present session of the Council, to cause to be brought in a bill to amend the Goldfields Publicans' Licensing Ordinance ? The Provincial Solicitor, in reply, said that last year when a measure of the nature now asked for was intro-

duced, the Goldfields' members were divided about it, and the Government had no present intention of bringing in such a bill.

HIGHWAY BILL. The Provincial Solicitor obtained leave to bring in a bill to consolidate and amend the law relating to Highways in the Province of Nelson. Bill read a first time, and on the following day read a second time, and a Select Committee appointed to take it into consideration. Thursday, Mat 2. highway board empowering act. On the motion of the Provincial Treasurer, seconded by Mr Baigent, it ff as resolved " That this Council recommends his Hunor the Superintendent to declare by proclamation, that parts two, three, four, five, six, and seven of the Highway Boards Empowering Act, 1871, shall extend and apply to any district constituted or to he constituted by or under any pro. vincial Act heretofore or hereafter to be passed, and to the inhabitants, ratepayers, and governing body of such district, as the case may require. PLANTING FOREST TREES. A motion was adopted, " That application be made to his Excellency the Governor, on behalf of this {Council, praying him to declare hy Proclamation in the ' New Zealand Q-azette,' that the • Forest Trees Planting Encouragement Act, 1871,' shall be in operation in this province." VOTE OP SUPPLY. The Superintendent was authorised to expend a sum not exceeding £6,000 for Public "Works, Salaries, and Contingencies." GOLD-MINING LEASES ON THE INANGAHUA. Mr Donne asked the Government, "Whether his Honour the Superintendent, in the exercise of his delegated power in making the reductions of area of the twenty gold-mining leases applied for at the Inangahua, and advertised in ' Gazette ' No. 12, dated April 24, 1872, was guided by the recommendation of the "Warden in eacb case; and also whether the eighteen applications for similar leases that were refused (vide ' Gazette ' of same number and date), were so refused on the recommendation of the Warden ?" _ The Provincial Secretary, in reply, said it was not the duty of the "Warden to decide upon applications for leases but only to enquire and report upon them. The Government had given every weight to the recommendations ofthe Warden, but they had exercised their own judgment after having done so. The area to be granted under lease in such a case as that of the Inangahua reefs was a question of policy, upon which the decision rested with the Government, and for that decision they were alone responsible. The average area granted in leases for quartz-mining at the Inangahua was rather over eight ecres, and on the Thames-gold-field rather under five acres. Leases had been refused, when the applications had been obvionsly of a speculative character, and where the granting of them would only have the effect of locking up the land from the lonafide miner. Leases had also been refused where applications were made for several large blocks of ground bj the same person.