WHO SHALL BE SUPERINTENDENT.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1082, 20 June 1873, Page 2

WHO SHALL BE SUPERINTENDENT.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times.) Sin, —A country may be considered as well governed when the people thereof are xirospcrous, content, and happy. Tho inhabitants of the Kelson South-West Goldiields, although euterprising, energetic, and pcrseveringly industrious, have for a long time been loud in their expressions of dissatisfaction and indignation towards those who hold tho reins of Government. It is a singular feature of this place that nearly every enterprise, if it does not result in failure, is attended by very partial success. The population steadily decreases, and tho district withers as if under a blighting influence. The explanation may doubtlessly be found at tho office of the Superintendent. Such being its aspect, it is of tho utmost consequence that tho people be stirring, and take into consideration the manner in which tho gentleman at present in office has acquitted himself. Oswaid Curtis Esq., intends soliciting your sufFrages. He will seek to

identify himself with you, even he, whose lofty position did not permit him to notice those whom he and his creatures have been pleased to term migratory horde of the AVest Coast." The migfatdfy horde will, when the time arrives, practically illustrate their opinion of him, and that they "are able to thoroughly apprehend the nature Of his claim to the post of honor. In order to obtain a proper estimate of his administrative capacity it is unnecessary to more than glance at the state Of this part of the province, not because there are no indications of the period when Oswald Curtis Esq. Was Superintendent. The migratory horde might easily imagine itself in some favored province Were it not for the pain which traversing the country inflicts, and the difficulty, expense, and danger attendant upon the transport of even the necessaries of life. Lest some may imagine that we have not anything great to boast of by. way of Public works, the followitfg .par excellence recommend them* selves to notice : One, a road was commenced midway between Charleston and Addison's but never completed. It has been in that state for the last two years, and remains like Oswald Curtis Esq., in the province, a point in apace. With respfect to this " Public work," it is but justice to add that it is the only sample in the district of what a road should be, and as such, its fate is to be lamented.

Another, the Inahgahua and Christy's track, (through doubtless the law of action and re-action) for a long time remained unservicable owing to the n'oncoinpletion of the intermediate portion. The last I shall notice is the creme de la creme of public works, viz., the bridge across the Orawaiti river, about three-quarters of a mile from "Westport. In the first place the Nelson Government paid for it a purchase sum of £SOO, or £6OO. It was thereafter in a few months arinounc\ as unfit for traffic, shortly after unsafe for pedestrians. It had a great many holes along it, like the bridge in the Vision of Mirza, and through one of them, one unfortunate man is supposed to have fallen into the stream-. The nest action was to substitute a punt across the fiver dividing the whole of the northern mining population who receive their supplies from Westport* and protection for the same was granted. The indignant mining population showed a sufficiently determined front to cause the Government to reconsider the matter, when it with; drew the protection, and a present of £SO, it is reported, was awarded as compensation to tho injured puntman.

But why cite instances ? they are apparent everywhere they should not be ; and show the state of the dis* trict after the exaction of so much revenue and long years of Curtis mis-rule. We may pass unnoticed his elegant expressions of contempt, and also the; to him* gratifying ridicule which theobsequious dependauts of his office have considered as so necessary towards the discharge of their duties, the making of respecful pelitious topics for their derision. There are few who have not observed that whilst some distinguish their exaltation by a display of qualities honorable to our nature, others characterize it by a betrayal of its depravity. Unhappily the latter being the most frequent, men high in position of political trust, shamelessly degrade it, and openly violate the trust reposed in them. It is for such td recollect that change of circumstances is not accompanied by suspension of responsibility nor exemption from interdependency, and of the possibility of the power that raises to prominence reducing to obscurity To the electors it may be difficult td perceive what besides the obstinacy of dulness- should urge Oswald Curtis* Esq., to contest the election* and what beside a columu of impudence he relies upon for his recommendation and support. But lest less thau justice be meted the following may assist towards judgment. It is tho matter of the Mount Eochfort Coalfield Railway* which shall be related as briefly as possible. This coalfield, according to one account given by tlie Government geologist, contained an all but inexhaustible supply for domestic use, and of the best quality for steam purposes, second only to the Welsh Coal. For the construction of a line from Westport thereto, a sum of money was voted by the General Assembly of session 1872. But inasmuch as the interest of a few was concerned in the construction of the Foxhill Eailway, the really necessary one to Mount Eochfort must be set aside. It is now found that the Foxhill line; in itself, is of no service whatever, and must at any cost be extended to Bruhnerton, and the iniquity of the action be masked by a semblance of traffic in the conveyance at a future time td Nelson (of course) of a few tdns of cdal much inferior to that of Mount Eochfort, which when once in the market would render the other all but unsaleable. In order td give this wretched scheming a decent appearance (towards the end that some one instead of the G-overnment might become possessed of the wealth of the Mount Eochfort coalfield) the &overnment geologist is despatched to re-examine the coalfield and accordingly (the Westport people anticipated an unfavorable report) he found it to have shrunk, and the coal seams not in any way of the extent at first reported, and so marvellously great wan thd

diminution as not to warrant the expenditure of the money, voted for the railway until further extensive explorations should be mado. Now we shall see who was behind the scenes, and possibly the very strong reason for the construction of the useless Eoxhill line and its extension, which is termed " a comprehensive scheme." The pretended explorations were not resumed, arid would have been indefinitely postponed bad it not been for irrepressible clamor raised, which so alarmed Oswald Curtis and Co. that he deemed it expedient to proceed to Westport. He calmed the storm with promises of railways, bridges, tracks, arid all that was suggested to him, and after performing the astonishing feat of visiting the coalfield, returned to his seat of Government. Now what prompted him to such a performance ? Subsequent circumstances may reveal the mystery. The 'Government geologist very shortly paid a flying visit to the coalfiold. f hat ho came and went is about all most people know about it, except that he directed a drive to be put in ' above what to "all ordinary mortals appeared the true seam of Coal. This Visit also was considered as one of ill omen, but behold this time the oracle 'reported seams of coal of unprecedented thickness. Now all this little tripping was at 'the public expense. The inhabitants, after all their experience of Nelson, recollecting the promises of the Superintendent, conceived things to wear a more promising : aspect, arid forgetting the severe losses through the encroachment of both sea "and 'river, which tlrey as many times have undauntedly met, imagined, but vainly, a fepeedy realisation of their hopes of prosperity. An act of baseness and treachery to Westport, and most hostile to the interest of the province, was preparing aud soon perpetrated, for the morning paper announced the granting of license to prospect over between GOOO and 7QOO acres of the coalfield to an obscure individual in Auckland, which, if a bona fide transaction, is a piece of jobbery unworthy of idiots ; if it is not, the persons so diligent at the public expense stand out in relief, and present an instauce of an atrocious abuse 'of position. Next comes the ancient process of the "washing of hands," for after a 'decent lapse of time a telegram is despatched to the Westport Coal Committee, with great fear and trembling. There is in it a very evident betrayal 'of conscious guilt—Oswald Curtis, Esq., states in it his desire that a " misapprehension be removed from the minds of the people " respecting the date of granting the concession to the Auckland stranger. It is perfectly immaterial to the 'case, and canuot assist his desire towards abating the indignation of the people with regard to so nefarious a transaction. The people are aware of this circnm stance, that upon the application of a gentlemen for an extent of land, a few days after Walker's grant, the Waste Lands Board, i.e. "the Superintendent, is reported to have refused him, and that upon being charged with having, within but a few 'days, granted a concession over a tract of country to another, was enough of 'a man to feel ashamed of having done so, and denied it. How wonderfully 'commingled is the good and evil in some constitutions. By giving away the right to occupy the coalfields, even for a term, the prosperity of the district was jeopardised, and the one 'certain, profitable, and immediately reinunerative investment of borrowed money, for the payment of which the "country is responsible, was deliberately avoided.

Now why this deliberate and open disregard of duty to his province ? There can but one reply suggest itself to the most simple indeed. It is •suggested by the application of the principles ruling in the "Wangapeka affair, which was hu'sh'e'd up with such indecent haste, and may well assist in developing the reply, and bo found useful towards a solution of what bears prima facie evidence of being a flagrant Dfeach of trust. Is this government ? Is it for this purpose £17,000 out of a revcuuo of about £70,000 is expended in the service of officials ? And in such hands is entrusted the welfare of the province! Their is yet one more instance of feckless un scrupulousness, which must in itself suffice to convince the people Of the necessity of a complete clearance of the "present Executive. Comment upon it is unnecessary. It is that impudent misappropriation of the public money, for obtaining signatures towards baffling the people in their attempt to rid themselves of so monstrous a government. It was found necessary to strengthen the official army, and accordingly certain hirelings were pressed into service—among them u one of the interminable family of the Knivetts, near relatives of the Provincial Secretary,"—he received £4 9s, another one is an individual who at present is warder at Wcstport jail, he received £lO, and another, a constable at the '.Lyfell, received £lB, each receiving his groats according to merit, and all of them highly respectable members and families of the Government. Those creatures strongly snggest the assortment in the great white sheet which St. Peter saw in a Vision slowly descending from heaven—to tho Nelson Province. AVe, iho people who suffer, cannot so much blame this iguoble band as lament that in the Government of a province so abouudingly rich in resources, are men so utterly destitute

of a sense of shame or ordinarv decency, [so devoid of principle and r gardless of common propriety, and the nagitiousness of whose actions is only equalled by the baseness of the natures that prompt it. And these are the exquisites who term the people they injure a "Migratory Horde" and chief of them is the man who expects you to return him to power. He appears desirous of conciliating these whom he has so heartlessly treated, and has recommended certain but much required works which long ago should have been executed. Unfortunately they come too late, for the migratory horde cannot allow such performances worthy of him, so much less than his duty, to blind them to the fact that he is only consulting his own interest, and will but regard all as the reluctant acknowledgment of his shortcomings, the ungraceful concessions of the Wayward, and wrested compliance of the obsequiousness of dissimulation. This paltriness of the twelfth hour cannot be accepted as amends for neglect during the preceeding eleven. All this teaches us that however rich in resources a country may be the administration of its Government if entrusted to bad men, is the greatest calamity that can befall it. A. June 15th 1873. [The foregoing letter, bearing evidence of having been written in good faith and honest intent, although perhaps open to discussion, by those who would split hairs, upon the question of strict facts and figures, gives expression to prevailing and increasing discontent at Nelson rule. A discontent which the Nelson Government will not wisely disregard.— Ed. W.T.]