The Westport Times. TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1873.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1073, 20 May 1873, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1873.

'■The Goldfields Kevenue Act, of which an abstract appears in another column, has beenintroduced by the -Provincial •Government ostensibly to meet the wishes of residents on the South West •Goldfields, but in reality it bears proof <of being nothing more than a cunningly devised " trap "to catch a sunbeam," a part and parcel of the ingenious-system of aTtifice now being elaborated to securo the votes of unwary electors at the next election of Superintendent, for the especial behoof of. one individual. His Honor Oswald Curtis, on his recent-visit to the Goldfields, certainly expressed his intention of listening to the complaint reiterated for years past, that local revenues were -n.it fairly expended in local works, and promised to introduce an act that should remedy the evil, The result is the aet under notice, but with the most •favorable interpretation it fails to convey in the slightest degree the impression thst it will effect the object far which il has been framed, namely,

" to promote the growth of that good feeling between different sections of tho community which is alleged to be essential to the good government and permanent prosperity of tho province as a whole.' The one pure and simple 'reqiiest'of the people on the Coast for years past has been the expenditure of revenuein the locality wherein raised, but it is only adding insult to injury to attempt to stifle clamor and throw dust in the eyes of the unwary, by foisting on the public a measure which only ipurports to meet half-way the demand for more equitable dealing. To tho term local revenue the public attach but one meaning. It comprises all revenue locally derived, less necessary contributions for Provincial and General Government purposes, and especially gold duties, the tax which pressing inost heavily on the producer should he spent for his especial advantage. The "Goldfields Revenues Act would still permit the gold duty to be absorbed by the Provincial Treasury while doling out to the local Boards one half only of the comparatively small sums to be derived from sale or leasing of lands, for miners rights, or business licenses, the other half, as a mutter of course, being absorbed into the Provincial, or rather Nelsonian, coffers. While admitting that the Act provides that the Superintendent may, if he shall think fit, " commit to the Board the expenditure of any moneys appropriated by the Provincial Council and pay over the same to the account of the Board to be appropriated in such manner and for such purposes as the Superintendent shall direct or appoint ;" we fail to see that the actual position of the inhabitants on the Goldfields is improved in the slightest degree. They are still left at the mercy of the Provincial Council who may or may not make appropriations, and doubly at the mercy of the Superintendent who may or may not " see fit" to vest the expenditure of any votes made in the hands of the local Boards. The appointment of Boards endowed with the very vague and uncertain powers proposed by the Act will have no other effect than to create so many additional obstructions to the effective progress of public works. Had it been proposed to give to the Boards the power to levy rates or to raise revenue by any other means than sticking up toll gates and putting paid collectors here and there to levy " dues upon all persons making use of any public work established within the district,"'tlicre might have been some ' chance of the Act receiving its meed of popular favor, but to create Boards with their attendant machinery of ; responsible officials with nothing to do save expend such money as tho Superintendent may deem safe to entrust to their control, looks very like, in fact, in plain words is, a transparent sham, a device of which the Superintendent of Nelson-Province should feel heartily ashamed.