THE BULLER MEMBER.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1007, 24 September 1872, Page 2

THE BULLER MEMBER.

As some curiosity has been expressed to learn what possible excuses the member for the Buller could find for his sudden defection as a supporter of the Eox Ministry, we extract from 1 Hansard' the chief points of his speech in the House, on the want of confidence motion. After expressing his willingness to concede to the present Government all the merit possible to attribute to thorn, from the fact that they had not been slow to recognise the difficulties under which the part of the country represented by himself, and the member for the Grey Valley, had been laboring under, owing to the maladministration of the Nelson Government, and while feeling thankful in common with the inhabitants of " my district" for the activity which the G-overnment had shown in sending dowu a Prime Minister to see the country, and judge for himself of the necessity for change, he continued " I cannot close my eyes to the fact that the administration of the General Government has not itself been satisfactory to us, although it has not been as bad as that of the Provincial Government. Sir, it will be remembered that last year, in tho Nelson Province, there wero three public works initiated of very considerable importance, namely, tho two lines to connect tho coal mines with

Groymouth. and Westport, and tie Nelson and Foxhill Jtailway. The treatment which these lines have recetved from the General Government has, to my mind, shown the existence of a considerable want of administrative ability in the present Govornuient. In regard to the railway to connect the Brunner coal mine with Grey, mouth, I find that, although allowing it to be a work of great importance the whole period which has elapsed since the money was voted for tho work, and the present time, has been lost by the Government in bargaining and arguing with the Provincial Government as to the terms upon which the railway should be made, and that the terms which were proposed by tho General Government were futile and ridiculous to a degree. Ido consider that the General Government have shown a want of earneetness in fulfilling the desire which they professed to open to the country these valuable coal fields, and they have also shown that they do not possess a sense of their true value. They have displayed an equal want of earnestness in the other coal line that it was proposed to construct. I now allude to the Mount Eochfort coal line, which received the sanction of the House last year, and for which a sum of £74,000 was passed in the schedule of the Act for coal railways. Instead of proceeding with the examination of this coal field, as was promised by the Government, immediately, and while fine weather lasted, considerable delay occurred before anything like the commencement of a survey was attempted • and then, when the head of the Geological department made his appearance in the district, to the great amazement of every person there ho was suddenly called away, and we now find that the result of his visit is a report which has proved eminently unsatisfactory to all who know the circumstances of that coal field. I consider that the manner in which these coal fields have been treated, displays a lamentable want of earnestness on the part of the Government in cultivating what, in my opinion, is second in importance to no other resource in the Colony.

The second reason he alleged was as follows : —" There is another instance which has convinced me of the want of administrative ability on the Government benches. It will be in the recollection of honorable members that, though the exertions ,of the honorable member for Grey Valley and myself, the House last year appropriated a sum of £21,000 to be spent on road work in the Nelson SouthWest G-oldfields. Well, I looked forward with great hope to the expenditure of this money, but I must say that I am not at all satisfied that the money has been well or judiciously laid out. The work upon which it was spent was certainly a most desirable one. A petition was presented to the House, last year, from the inhabitants of the luangahua Valley, asking for the immediate construction of a road to connect them with Westport and Greymouth. The work, of all others, should have been immediately undertaken, in order to prevent actual starvation, or at any rate seriou* inconvenience resulting to the inhabitants of the Inauijahua Valley. The fine weather that then prevailed was pointed out as the most desir.tble ttmj to commence the work ; and it was urged upon the Government by the Superintendent of Nelson, by the representatives of the dist'ict. and bv the people themselves, that it was of the greatest importance that no time should be lost. But months passed, and although the road was already surveyed, and no difficulty stuod in the way of an immediate commencement, yet it was not till the end of March that the work was begun, but then the contracts were let in such a way as to compel the contractors to finish them within a very short time indeed. In consequence, the contractors demanded a very much higher price than would otherwise have been asked. I need scarcely point out that this resulted in very considerable lose, which was added to by the fact that the inclement season was near, and the contractors, in framing their tenders, had also to consider the difficulties which they would meet with during the approaching bad weather. Well, it would ba supposed that, after paying an excessive price for these roads, the Government would have had the roads constructed speedily : but such was not the case. The Government, not satisfied with making a road to connect these goldfields with one port, and instead of bringing all the force they could to bear upon the construction of one line, let contracts one after another for the whole length of roads on both sides, to the full extent of the money which they had at their disposal, anil then withdrew the pressure from the contractors, so that instead of adheriug to time, not one of the contractors has finished his work even now, and I have not even the slightest idea when they will have finished. The consequence has been, that instead of the inhabitants of the district having, during the winter, the benefit of these roads, for the construction of which the money was voted, they have no road through the winter, although the roada havo been paid for at an excessively high prico. I reckou that, at the lowest calculation, that line of road has cost £l5O a mile more than it would have done had the Government used ordinary despatch in calling for tenders, giving ample time for its construction in the fine weather. I make the total loss in this way amount to £sooo—£sooo of a dead lo?s upon a public work that

does not come to much over £20,000 altogether. But that docs not represent tho whole amount of loss, because tho inhabitants of the Inangahua Valley, during tbo whole of last winter, aave been compelled to pay an excess >f £lO per ton for the carrying of ;heir goods, through there being no ■oad; and the loss thus occasioned [ estimate—from a knowledge of the jmount of provisions sent weekly to this new district—at something like £SOOO more. Indeed lam underrating the case, in setting down the loss incurred in this way at £SOOO. This Bhews clearly that in the expenditure of a sum of £20,000 on a public work there has been a mismanagement which has resulted in a loss to the Colony of close upon 50 per cent, of the amount. His third reason vvaß that the immigration arrangements wero worthy of the strongest condemnation inasmuch as it appeared to him ' that tho igent-General went out of his way in jrder to avoid bringing to this country i class of immigrants who are second io none, and who, up to the present ;ime, have been the mainstay of this :olony. I say, in order to avoid this, ie has been driven to the expedient of lending a class of immigrants who, udging from the sample that arrived a this port a few weeks ago are Intirely unfitted for the work of lolonization." I The fourth reason was that he considered '"as one who has had some small connection with the Press, that the system of patronage which the Government have exercised is calcutted to entirely demoralise the Press. J* * * 1 feel strongly that if meii a system is to be continued the :onsequences will be disastrous, ilready a great section of the Press 3 looked upon in this House and elsewhere with contempt. Tell me what lido in politics a newspaper takes, and [will tell you what it will suppress ind what publish; so that no one lelieves one word in the newspapers egarding public matters or public nen." The fifth reason was that in eference to the action of the Governnent in opposing the reduction of the lold Duty. "1, in common with the itber representatives of the goldfields , lave good grourds for complaint gainst the present Government for he manner in which they acted when hat resolution was proposed. I canlot understand the policy of a Governneut which will come down with ■ iroposals to take the duty off news- * lapers, and yet still refuses to reduce he gold duty." ,

The sixth reason was " that although ;lie Sau Francisco mail service may lossibly bring us some good, and that n course of time our connection with pberica may be found advantageous, Mil I think, at the present time, we ire paying rather too much for the ixiiry which that mail accommodation fords us." He objected to the organization of lie Tress Association, rnd finally in vlennce to the Water Supply on the |ildfields said il 1 think the system mder wHeh the amount of money |ycated for this purpose is to ho ex|i ded is anything but satisfactory. I bid that a !c\v favored districts will ;et the entire benefit, while other |lricts—equally entitled to considerition, and where* perhaps, the money lould be better spent —are entirely pi-looked. I attribute that to the it is only to those, districts ihich have a sufficient amount of—fall I call it log-rolling—power in ;iiis House, or who can bring some jreat influence to bear on the Ministry, -it is only those districts that are 'aken into consideration at all. i" wppose j am deficient in that quality requisite to hring a district into notice, ffld therefore my district has been assfid over altogether, although year liter year the Provincial Council and be Provincial Government have reommended that certain works should je taken in hand. I mention these natters simply to show that, notwithstanding the great claim which the lovernment have for my support, in lonsequence of their bringing forward i Bill which I believe, if founded upon just basis, is calculated to do a vast mount of good upon the Nelson buth-WestGoldfields,there are other Moderations which weigh with me, Pi which prevent me upon this oc asion giving them the support which otherwise would only be too happy 'accord."