MR. CURTIS DEFENDED.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1788, 29 April 1874, Page 2

MR. CURTIS DEFENDED.

Mr Alfred Saunders has, it appears, been attacking th 9 Superintendent of Nelson through the medium of the Canterbury papers. Mr Curtis has, however, found an anonymous defender, who writes as follows in the Press of the 21st :— It is not true that he (Mr Curtis,) " has never yet seen the interior of the Province. 1 ' The writer of this having met Mr Curtis in various parts of the interior' of that Province, and that too, in the iestless and energetic pursuit of his duties. " The rich beds of excellent coal" are I affirmp- iC -no±_.eon<lemned _to__ lie idle." What; does Brunnerton lie idle? are they not exerting the utmost of enter-: prise and energy in the immense coal operations now being carried on at Colling- 1 wood and the Buller districts ? " Rather than take them to any other port than! Nelson, which nature has made practically! inaccessible." In other words, it is im-' possible for ships of any tonnage to enter! the port of Nelson. And this from the 1 pen of a man some time her Superintendent, who has a hundred times and mom seen our large home merchantmen sailing, 1 tranquilly and fearlessly over the bar into' its harbor, beautiful, capacious, and safe; from wind and tide. A magnificent basin 1 protected by a natural bulwark thrown up; by the action of thesea, and extending from the coast in one graceful unbroken line to ; the harbor mouth. True, at that mouth, i a rock rose abruptly out of the sea, and 1 I rendered navigation a matter of caution and judgment. This, however, did not prevent our great ocean steamers frotn : passing to and from Nelson even in the 1 urid hours of the night obstruction is being demolished and blotted out by means of the revenue Mr Curtis is supposed to waste ; so that a hindrance which a doxen practical miners could sweep away in a few months, will, I expect by this time, exist only in history. " ' The Province has gone down, and of course the city with it.' Of course, lam at least the victim of a delusion and a snare. A few months ago, after over a years residence in. Nelson, 1 had occasion to leave it. It was hearty healthy, and happy, full of brave, fearless, intelligent, prosperous men, a garden of perfect natural beauty, rich in flowers, fruitfields, vineyards, and gardens, laid out with exquisite art ; her merchants and: people swelling will provincial conceit, 1 with railways, copper, and coal on the brain, with an admirable quota of cheerful, lusty, rubicund, hungry young Nelsonians; but acropolis and Province "have gone down." Oh ! unhappy. Nelson. Your late Super, would rather make a public glory than sppeed to your rescue, or shed a tear of generous sympathy over your untimely fall.