THE SUPERINTENDENCY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 234, 5 October 1869, Page 2

THE SUPERINTENDENCY.

MR. CURTIS' MEETING. Thero was a very large attendance of tho electors at the Proviucial Hall last night, to lisien to Mr. Curtis' address on offering himself for re-electiou to the Superintondency. The chair waa taken by Mr. Gouland who after a few preliminary remarks called upon Mr. Curtis, who said : Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, before entering upon the immediate business for which I have invited you to meet me this evening, I wish to refer to the last occasion on which I addressed you in the capacity of Superintendent. On that occasion I commented freely upon the proceedings of the Council during t se session just closed, when I was feeling considerable irritation at the misrepresentation to which I had been subjected at the hands of many of the members of the Council, and no doubt a large amount of bottled up wrath exploded at the time ; I did not, however, wish to exceed the fair bounds of criticism and I was surprised to find an opinion expressed that I had used abusive language, and imputed unworthy motives. More especially was I sorry to see th>it this opinion was held by Mr. Barnicoat, the Speaker of the Council, a gentleman for whom I ent' rtain the highest respect. I must however differ from him, for lam unable to s^e where I made use of abusive language, at the same time I am willing to allow that no man can depend entirely on his own judgment in a question in which he is personally concerned, therefore I am willing to say that if I used such language or imputed such motives, I am quite willing to retract them. I will now proceed to the immediate object of this meeting. Two years and a half ago you elected me as Superintendent, and I now ask you for a renewal of your confidence for a period of four years. But before entering upon the grounds upon which I ask your votes, I will say a lew words with reference to the other candidates In tiie first place there is Mr. D wan, about whom I need not say much, as his address shows that he is entirely wrapped up in the West Coast, and knows very little of the rest of the Province. Mr. Horn is another, but as he has issued no address, I can say nothing with regard to him. -Mr. Gibbs has only published a nominal address, and is therefore only known as a member of the Council, and in looking back I to hi.s career there, I must say that I can s.-areely consider his conduct to be in accordance with the interests of the Province. In the last session he I stated that he approved of the separ ttion of the ' West Coast, and voted accordingly; tbat, I should hardly think, would find favor with this portion of the Province. Another step he took was to call for a Committee to enquire into the Departmental expenses, the result of wbich was a report stating that they considered great reductions should be made, but that they did not see how they were to be effected. Mr. Aker-ten has issued an address which calls for some comment.^ In the first place he presumes that the electors are desirous of a change, that, however, still remains to be proved ; he next speaks of his past conduct — well as far as that goes he can only speak of what he did in the Provincial Council and after carefully looking through the proceedings of that body during the time he was a member of it I can only say that I see no signs of his taking any prominent part excepting with regard to the Port, and I never find that he took much, interest in matters referring to the country generall}'. Afrer several indefinite promises, he says that he will call able men to his Executive and will endeavor to work in harmony with the Council -as the organ of the people. But he seems to forget that the Superintendent equally with the Council is the organ of the people. There is nothing I myself could more desire than to work in harmony with the Council and it is my intention, if re-elected, to ask at least two gentlememen from the new Council to join my Executive. Then follows a general profession that he will always do what is right and after that a paragraph which we usually see in the royal speeches, from which I think he must have copied it, namely tbat he " will study rigid economy in the departmental conduct of the Province so far as attainable without impairing its efficiency." With regard to the ligbt dues which Mr. Akersten proposes to reduce, I may say that the Superintendent has no control over them but that it rests entirely with the General Government. Then, as to the water rates, Mr. Akersten has, I fear, stolen a march upon me here, in fact I almost think that he must have heard that it was my intention to reduce them. This I should have done before but that the revenue derived from them was not equivalent to the expenditure they entailed, but as the amount received is now on the increase I have felt justified in causing a large reduction to be made. It may be argued that it is illegal to do this but I conceive that the only intention of the Act was to raise sufficient to meet the necessary expenses. With reference to the proposal to increase the efficiency of the Board of Works I may say that it is only within the last two or three weeks that this his become practicable and that it is entirely owing to my efforts in the Assembly that it is so now. As to the improvements Mr. Akersten proposes to make at the Port I am at a loss to know how he is going to do this without a vote from the Council. He also proposes to lower the waterman'sjlicense fees — and here may I remark, by the way, that it was on Mr. Akersten's own proposition that they have to pay any fee at all — but if this fee is reduced. I consider that that of the hackney carriage proprietors should be treated in the same way. There is one paragraph upon which lam at variance with Mr. Akersten, namely, that which refers to the West Coast. I maintain that no ."district has a right to demand the revenue derived from it, but that the whole should go into one general fund to be spent for the good of the province as a whole. If what he proposes to do now had been carried out when the goldfields first started what would have become* of them, lt was ,by the judicious expenditure of money from other districts that they were developed at

] all. Before any revenue was derived from them I £40,000 was spent there. With regard to supplementing public contributions to prospecting parties. _ I agree with this to a certain extent but I believe that as a rule Government prospecting parties are a failure, I know that such has been the case in Victoria and Otago. I have lately been found fault with in the papers for not granting assistance to a party. The fact was that a gentleman looking very unlike a practical digger came to me to help him in prospecting the Rae Valley. I had two objections to this, in the first place I did not think from his appearance that he wasthe description of man to employ, and secondly I thought if we were to prospect, it would be better to confine onr search to our own province and not to carry ifc into Marlborough. The best mode by which Government can encourage prospecting I believe to be by the offer of a bonus. I now come to ray own claims for your support. There is one thing on which I specially pride myself, which is that shortly after taking office I entered into negotiations wiih the Catholics and by a trifling amendment in our Education Act induced them to come under its operation, so that it now embraces all religious bodies. There was a sura lying in the treasury at the time of my election which had been put by towards meeting our provincial debt, this the General Government endeavored to obtain, but I succeeded in saving it from their grasp and it has beeu expended in public works. In the completion of the waterworks I took a special interest as I first brought the scheme before the Council. During last year I made reductions in salaries and contingences to the amount of £12,000 a year. This was disputed, but the Council never ventured to question it and I now repeat it. We noAv . come to the most important of all subjects — the railway. In this, as you know, I have always taken a deep interest, and the reason that it has been so long delayed is that it was necessary to get certain Acts passed though the Assembly, in order to send . the scheme home in a complete form. It has met with very large opposition in the Council, itnd from a newspaper. I cannot believe that either of them were blind to the immense advantage? it would confer upon us, but I suppose' theyi^thought it impracticable, but I think tl^-faStf of its having been taken up in so warm armanner'Jt home must remove all opposition. Now, how far .would a change of Superintendents affect the chances of success ? I have made certain offers to the London people, I have agreed to lease to them the Brunner coal mine, also that at Mount jßocbfort on the usual conditions, but when the railway is completed they are to get a free grant. This is not legally binding, and a new Superintendent might think fit to retract these promises. But what eftect would it have in London when they knew that a vote of censure had been passed on me ? When you con • sider how opposed the West Coast has always been to the scheme, and that any candidate who deteats me, must owe his victory to the West Coast votes, you will agree with me that it would create great suspicion amongst the projected company at home. Again, I am,andhave been for many years, known by name, by family, and in my business connections, to Sir George Grey, and many of the most influential of those who are now interesting themselves in the matter. Great dissatisfaction with me is expressed ' on the West Coast, but Ido not believe ifc is as wide spread as it seems to be. The papers write strongly in my dispraise, but the reason, I believe to be, that they know perfectly well that so long as I hold office they will not N obtain the separation which they seek, but which would prove ruinous to themselves and disastrous to us on the Eastern side, and it is because I consider it would prove so injurious to the whole Province that I shall always oppose it to the utmost. If I am re-elected, it will depend entirely upon what I think is for the interest of the Province at large, how much money is spent in any particular district. The Brunner and Mount Rochfort coal mines I have agreed to hold in abeyance until the end of this year, when I expect to receive a definite rep-y from the railway company. I have told Mr. Morrison that if there should be no likelihood of the railway being proceeded with, to endeavor to make some arrangements relative to the coal mines. The Collingwood mine is now being worked by a most energetic company, who have been assisted by the Government to the extent of making all the surveys free of charge, and also by the Provincial Council voting them the sum of £250, which I have handed over to them. lam perfectly aware that in coming forward as a candidate I am under a great disadvantage as during my short term of office everything has been extremely dull. Our land fund has been completely exhausted, and there has been no revenue except that derived from Customs and other minor sources. For this, however, the present Government cannot be blamed. There is no one more anxious than myself to carry on public works, but this cannot be done without money, and it is only by pushing forward our railway, and dock, and developing our mines that we can hope to raise sufficient revenue to undertake any large public works. At the same time I wish to assist to the utmost in my power in forwarding local manufactures, especially that of flax, which is now attracting so much attention. There is one thing I may say that since I have been in office party feeiing which at one time ran high here has greatly died out, and the people are inclined to support a man according to his fitness for office, and there no longer appears to be that distrust that once existed between the social classes. If I have in any way contributed towards this state of things I can only say that it will always be a great satisfaction to ms to knowit. lam aware that during the two years and a half " I have been in office it was quite impossible that I should please everybody — an angel from heaven could hardly have done that, but I do not profess to be an augel, nor do I think that you will v find one in either of the four gentlemen who are -; opposing. me. " ', ;, Mr. Curtis then sat down amidst loud and. ; continued cheering, and after sevoral questions had been put to and answered by him, a vote of thanks for the able and lucid manner in which he had explained his viev^s was, on the motion 7 of Mr. Sparrow, carried by acclamation.'' A vote of thanks to. the chairman terminated the proceedings.