INORDINATE GREED.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1223, 27 October 1874, Page 4

INORDINATE GREED.

[WESTPORT EVENING STAB. J It has been found necessary to publicly discuss the action of Greymouth residents in attempting to obtain on their own behalf an undue share of money to be expended on roadworks in the Nelson province. The imputation will of course be denied, a burst of virtuous indignation indulged in, and argument essayed to prove that the Greymouthians are as just and gouerous to their neighbors as to themselves. And yet following hard upon their selfish clutch at the £50,000, granted for road purposes, there comes another little episode in their tactics strongly suggestive of inordinate greed. Some freehold sections at Greymouth —land formed originally by alluvial drift, and of late submerged by the same agency—were held by Greymouth residents. Speculation in such sections had primarily arisen, not from their value as building sites, but by reason of the ultimate need for such land for harbor improvements and protective works, and doubtless visions of fancy prices or rack rents were indulged in by patriotic investors. A sudden flood swept away the baseless fabric of their dreams, the greater part of the land disappeared, and at once the owners raised a cry for compensation. The General Government, willing to deal equitably, offered as compensation for sections wholly uuder water the Crown cost, £s,the Government undertaking also to pay transfer fees, while on sections partially or altogether out of the water a valuation would be made, and a fair price offered the owners. Against this proposal the section-holders have rebelled, unwilling to forego the chance of plunder. One modest individual fixes his claim at £IOOO and others are only in a lesser degree exorbitant. The offer of the Government has been declined and a meeting of the section-holders held on Tuesday evening last, to consider whether that offer should be accepted or the Government asked to take action to acquire the land by arbitration, ended inconsequently. It is, however, only just to remark that the Greymouth press deprecates these inordinate claims on the Government, however much it may support similar claims in another direction, The Star says "' When interests clash, majorities decide,' and it will be the duty of the people of Grey mouth to adopt measures for the enforcement of the right the Government have of submitting the matter to immediate arbitration, because it is possible that the Government are indifferent as to the result of the present negotiations and may regard the obstructive action of two or three individuals as indicative of indifference on the part of the people of the town in re the necessity that exists for the immediate expenditure of the money voted to improve the harbor, and believing this, possibly the vote may be allowed to lapse, or its expenditure be held in abeyance until the people most interested see the folly of throwing impediments in the way of those who are oidy studying the interests of the obstructionists." The Argus expresses similar views, but apart from this it is clear the Greymouthians have shown themselves in their true colors. The actions of the people, even more than the opinions of their press, indicate motives prompting the public mind. They are greedy in their extreme selfishness, and the Government is slowly awaking to the fact.