The Westport Times. FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1873.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1086, 4 July 1873, Page 2

The Westport Times. FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1873.

"To remove misapprehension as to tho actions of the Waste Land Board," so telegraphed Mr Oswald Curtis on tho 30th of May last to the Westport Coal and Railway Committee, " I think it desirablo to inform them that no right of any kind has been granted over any part of coal reserves since receipt of resolutions of Committeee by telegram, on the 2<Srh March. The prospecting license to Walker although not issued uutil the Ist April, was granted on the 19th March, nine days previous to telegram, also before discovery at Waiinangaroa telegraphed by Warden on 2-lth March and consequently long before prospecting was directed by l3r Hector, on tho 9th April." By an ingenious dove-tailing of facts and fiction nis Honor who requested that '' this telegram may be published for information of people of Westport" sought to throw dust in their eyes and gloss over the fact that tho members of the Waste Lands Board, of which he is the chief, the other two members being the merest puppets, had done precisely what, as presumedly honest men and faithful public servants, they should not have done. The report of the Mount Eochfort Coal Enquiry Committee has thrown more light upon the subject than Mr Oswald Curtis' telegram, and the particular paragraph referring, thereto is worth a second perusal by our readers. It says : " Regarding the prospecting license granted to Mr A bdrt Walker, your Committee finds that Mr Walker applied for 6720 acres by letter dated Auckland, March 7th, 1873, his application was granted for blx months by tho Waste Lauds Board,

March 19th. On the 28th March, the Westport Coal and Railway Committee telegraphed to the Superintendent recommending " that no further rights bo granted over coalfields in the district in view of pending arrangements with the General Government relative to the construction of a railway from Westport to Ngakawhau. On the 7th April the Warden also telegraphed to the Superintendent, " with reference to applications for coal prospecting licenses in the district, 1 would suggest for your consideration whether it would not be better to refuse all such, and grant only leases to such parties as are prepared to take and work them. I fear that prospecting licenses will injuriously lock up ground and hinder others from doing anything." On the 24th April, the Waste Lauds Board considered application made by Mr Albert Walker in a letter dated Auckland, March 25th, in which he enquires the result of his former application, asks what he will have to pay, and requests that the time of his prospecting license be extended to twelve months ; the extension asked for was granted, and a license was subsequently issued, dated April Ist, having a currency of twelve months, comprising 6720 acres of the reserve including the Waimangaroa." The date it will be observed being fixed four days after the date of Westport telegram.

But there are other little facts connected with this peculiarly characteristic freak of the Nelson Waste Lands Board which it is desirahle should be published " for the information of the people of Westport," in support of the argument that urgent need exists for a thorough reorganization of the Waste Lands Office, "To remove misapprehension" Mr Oswald Curtis anxiously informed the people of Westport that Walker's prospecting license, although not issued until the Ist of April, was granted on the 19th March. But he was by no means so anxious that the information the Waste Lands Board dared not refuse the Enquiry Committee should be also imparted to the people of Westport. The following mem: culled from a mass of documents submitted to the Enquiry Committee, and on which the foregoing paragraph from the lieport was based, is suggestive.

" Mem : in re prospecting license issued to Albert Walker, Ist April, 1873.

A Prospecting License under Buller lleserve Administration Amendment Act, lSb'6, (the Amendment Act allows prospecting licenses up to 15,000 acres and for ten years) over G720 acres of land at Mount Kochfort, applied for by A. Walker on the Ist March, 1873.

The Waste Lands Board at its BituifUM nf unu iww, granted its issue for 6 months but subsequently extended if for 12 months at the request of Walker contained in his letter dated Auckland, 25th March on the ground of his intention to go to England to procure the capital."

Mark ! Mr Curtis in telegraphing to Westport that no right of any kind had been granted since tho receipt of the telegram Iroin the Westport Committee, astutely, as he thought, omitted, all mention of the trifling circumstance that a right fo six months license, granted on the 19th March had been subsequently extended to a right fur twelve months license. The subtle distinction between granting " no right of any kind," and doubly increasing an existing right being evidently more apparent to Mr Curtis' preceptive intelligence than that of ordinary thinkers. Nor did he say that the extension was granted in response to a letter from Mr Walker, dated 25th March, which if posted at Auckland on that date, as possibly it might have been, would have reached Nelson by the steamer Wellington on the 27th, and in the course of ordinary official routine, would scarcely have been taken into consideration before the arrival of the Westport telegram on the 28th. Neither did he care to state "for the information of the poopleof Westport," in his telegram of the 30th May, to the Westport Committee, that the extension of Walkers grant, as asked for in his letter bearing date the 25th March, was in reality not granted until the meeting of the Waste Lands Board, held on the 2-iith April, just twenty seven days after receipt of telegram from the Westport Committee, and also after receipt of telegram from the Westport Warden, tho one asking and the other recommending that no more rights over the coalfields should be granted, pending the decision of the General Government, as to construction of the proposed railway. A fact, which cropped up on inspection of the official records of the Waste Lands Board by (lie Enquiry Committee. Mr Oswald Curtis, by a subsequent telegram, to the Westport Committee, attempted in sporting phrase to "hedge," by telegraphing that Walkers license was for prospecting laud on the Mount Eochfort plateau, and that any lease to be granted would only be for a few hundred acres, and that such grant would not affect the railway question except very remotely. This too was published as requested "for the information of the people of Westport," but the fact, the glaring, palpable, and undeniable fact remains that the method of transacting business in the Nelson Waste Lauds Office is loose in the extreme. Allowing the possibility of the Walker transaction having been inadvertently muddled by reason of the incompetency or carelessness of the individuals to whom the

business of the Waste Lands Office i 3 entrusted, there is no valid reason why such a state of affairs should longer exist. The Enquiry Committee recommended an increase of the number of members of the Board. It would have been more satisfactory to the public had the recommendation extended to an enquiry into the entire working and management of the Waste Lands Board, the periodical auditing of its accounts, a thorough remodelling in all defective details, and hereafter a prompt and faithful publication of its proceedings. A custom observed by other Waste Lands Boards in New Zealand, and, as late circumstances have proved, mo3t essentially necessary at Nelson.