THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY;. MOnday, DECEMBER 2,1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1355, 2 December 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY; . MOnday , DECEMBER 2,1872.

The mighty moral which the Nelson Mail draws from the state of affairs which it so graphically describes in the article which was quoted in these columns on Saturday amounts simply to this— that the one public work upon which the Superintendent, the so-called Executive, the Provincial Council, and the people of the Province should exhaust their energies and all available revenue is a tramway from Nelßon city to the Lyell, or «yen to the Inangahua. With all that our contemporary says in a general way as to the advantages of internal communication, no one can possibly be disposed to disagree, and much that he says as to the propriety of Nelson city being brought, as it were, nearer t« the field for agriculture and mining which exists in the valley of the Upper Buller will recommend itself to the approval of anyone who has had opportunities of ascertaining the desperate state of dultiess into which Nelson has of late years declined, arid the extent and value of the territory intersected by the Bullet and its tributaries. But sympathy with the sentiments of the Mail .will cease there— at any rate among those who are aware of the principles of account-keeping upon which the cost of constructing roads to the Upper Buller has hitherto been charged, and who distinguish the aim of the arguments used in advocating this new work. Hitherto, and especially during the last session of the Council, it has been the practice to make road-works which were essentially beneficial to Nelson rt^j an i4 }\ a surroundings a charge upon W«tt Fields revenue exclusively. The ittJT works which are now in courae of

progress in. the direction of the Lyoll from the Nelson end of the Province are debited solely to the Gold Fields, although the advantages to be gained by their construction are not only not exclusive to the Gold -Fields, but very unequally divided between them and Nelson proper. In fact, if it wero a question simply of developing the district of the/Upper Buller, aroadfromthelnanstahua Nelson ward, by the Lyell and the Newton, would be the proper project, and the cost might then bo with greater fairness made a charge upon the income derivable from Gold Fields sources of revenue. The objections which apply to this imposition upon the Gold Fields revenue of the cost of roads already made or in course of construction can be made with even greater force against the recognition of this proposed tramway as a great Provincial work. Accepting the Mail's own version of it, the necessity for such a work arises less from the secluded position of tho population at the Lyell and the Inangahua than from the impoverished" and almost insolvent condition of the city of Nelson. It is, in short, mole a city question than a Provincial one, and that is a phase of any project which the Government may initiate that ought to bo well considered by the public. Let Nelson city enjoy its tramway, cheap railway, or whatever it may be, but let it be remembered that it is a Nelsonian much more than it is a West Coast necessity. The necessity of the West Coast, and the means of meeting it, lie in a very different direction, and the latter was very plainly pointed out in a recent speech by the Superintendent of Canterbury, Mr Rolleston. He was taking part, a few days ago, in the celebration of the opening of the North Canterbury railway as far as Rangiora, and he with reason and propriety congratulated the inhabitants of that district upon the advantages certain to accrue to them from the completion of a work which the speakers who followed him attributed to the spirited action of Mr Moorhouse, Mr Reeves, and the present Ministry. But Mr Rollestou referred, as a special reason for congratulation, to the fact that that line was a link in the chain of railway communication which he hoped to see in a few years completed, by way of the Amuri and Ahaura, as far as the West Coast. He spoke of such a consummation as being one of the objects to be devoutly wished for and energetically promoted in the interests of tho whole Middle Island, and, considering the intimate and extensive business relationships subsisting between the East and West Coasts,' the wonder is that a railway uniting the two seaboards was not among the first projects provided for by the Public Works Act. Compared with a continuation of the Foxhill railway, such as is now advocated, it is a project in which the Western Gold Fields have a hundred-fold greater interest. Brief as they were, Mr Rolleston's remarks illustrated this abundantly, but, in the absence of a report of his speecji, which is not at the moment available, we cannot quote anything more pointed or more pertinent than a letter on this subject which has just appeared in the Canterbury Press. The writer of that letter refers to Browning's Pass as affording the easiest access to the Coast, but that is a question for engineers, and upon which, if wo are correctly informed, engineers are not likely to coincide with him. He ia more ab home in other matters affecting the question, and this is how he puts it : — "Problem — To join a foodless gold raising population of 35,000 to a goldless food-raising population of 60,000. Can it be done? Have we the means? Who feeds them at present ? •" For many years past the farmers of Canterbury have (virtually) submitted to the following charges on produce sent by them to their next-door neighbors over the hills :— Land carriage, country to Christchurcb 153 per ton Rail, Christchurch to Lytteiton 7s „ Handlings, 2s 6d ; Waste, &c, : 2s6d 5s „ Freight to Hokitika, including towage... ... 50s „ Insurance, marine, f. p. a., and charges ... 15 8 „ Landing charges, &c 5s „ Risk account, particular average 10s „ From the barn to Hokitika... 107 a „ £5 7s per ton. " The disastrous results are many. The Melbourne and Nelson merchants have been supplying goods that Christchurch merchants should have supplied. The _gold raised on the West Coast has gone to Melbourne instead of ■ coming to East Canterbury. Farm produce -raised in Canterbury has actually been shipped to Melbourne from Lytteiton, and sent from Melbourne to Hokitika at a profit. While engaged in the West Coast trade, the writer has bought and paid for feed oats, raised thirty-five miles from Christchurch, at Is 6d (eighteenpence) per bushel, and sold those very oats at 8s 6d (eight and six) per bushel by auction at Hokitika wharf, the enormous cost and charges on getting this produce down to Lytteiton, hundreds of miles round by sea, over the bar, and into Hokitika, being more than covered by the tremendous prices. Who, virtually, pays all those costs ? The Canterbury farmer, of course; and, once more, you, my good friend, are the pigeon. Then again, timber at Hokittka is 6s. and 7s delivered, while in Christchurch it is 16s (sixteen) and 17s at the yard. "How many miles separate two nations so much interested in each other 'I From Bide to side of the range not twenty miles. Has a practicable line of railway been found 1 Yes ! with easy gradients on both Bides, via Browning's pass. Could the- Bogie. and the narrow gauge climb those gradients ? Yes ! Canterbury is making ,£20,000 a year profit out of her railways, and will have shortly about £250,000 provincial funds to spend. This little twenty miles of railway to connect the two countries, costing about £120,000, should be done at once ; Westland be reabsorbed by Canterbury, and as Mr Rolleston boasts of his "progress," no doubt our problem' will be solved, and a foodless gold country will be joined to a goldless food country."