ELECTION MEETING, LAST NIGHT.

Westport Times, Volume 1, Issue 145, 17 January 1868, Page 2

ELECTION MEETING, LAST NIGHT.

A very numerously attended meet- i ing took place last night at Trimble's i Nelson Hotel. It was called by Mr : Crate, who has, as is well known, a speciality as a convener. It was announced for eight o'clock, but it was considerably past that hour, and the room was densely packed with an audience that w«s rapidly becoming impatient, before the proceedings commenced. This delay appeared to be owing to the want of a chairman, an article of necessity which Mr Crate had either neglected to provide, or which had failed him at the last moment. At length a voice in the background suggested the name of Mr P. A. Jones, which was eagerly welcomed by the crowd, evidently in the expectation that such a nomination would be provocative of some fun. If, however, such was the idea of the proposer, he must have been lamentably disappointed, for Mr Jones quietly accepted the post offered to him and. fulfilled its duties admirably, preserving order in an unexceptionable manner, and by the dignified ease of the few remarks he addressed to the meeting, impressing those who only came to scoff with a due sense of the importance of the work they were engaged in. He said that he had certainly not expected the honor that had been thrust upon him; but he thought on such a momentous occasion as this it became every man however feeble his abilities —however humble his position—not to shirk any duties that might be imposed upon him, but to do his best to advance the interests of the district. It was this feeling that had animated the Broughams and the Disraelis in England, the Calhouns and the Jjffersons in America, and this feeling had induced them to aspire to the high position of representing their fellowcitizens, and devoting all their natural and acquired abilities to the noble task of serving others. Mr Crate was about to present himself to seek their suffrages, and it would be for them to sift him and test him, and ascertain if he had the ring of true steel. Of one thing he was quite certain—Mr Crate was a persevering man—a man of enormous pertinacity. He was likewise a selfish man, and there was no better qualification for a statesman. Mr Crate, in rising, addressed the audience ironically as gentlemen of Westport, and stated that he was about to anticipate that he should not have been able to have held a meeting that evening, but he was much obliged to Mr Jones for the part he had taken. Several gentlemen had promised to act as his Chairman, but when the time came they had not the manliness to come forward. It was customary for a candidate, in coming before a constituency, to have a requisition presented to him; but although he had one, he did not attach much importance to it, and therefore he laid it on one side; in fact, he looked upon a requisition as nothing. He would now go into the more important matter, and that was in relation to the acts of the Provincial Council during the last session. The revenue for the financial year, which had not yet expired, was estimated at £60,000, and the majority of the members wished the greater portion of this money to be expended on Nelson alone. The consequence of this was that the Commissioner tended his resignation, and it was in consequence of his holding out as he did, that the improvements which had taken plaice on the goldfields had been effected. There was no sympathy accordingly, between the Commissioner and the Council, neither was there any between a mining and an agricultural community, because a mining community was prompt in all its actions. The sum of £30,000 had been voted for depirtmsntal expenses, and £28,000 for public works. This the Council had passed en globo in order that they might have more control over it. In this sam, £3OOO was put down for an hospital at Nelson, and £2500 for Karamea Ward. He (Mr Crate) spoke to the Superintendent about this grant, and was told that the reason they were going to lay out this large sum of money was that they could cure sick people cheaper up in Nelson than on the goldfields. He then drew the Superintendent's attention to the Kararaea-road, whic h was

situated, on the eastern side of the r rages, and could not benefit the Southwest district, but his Honor laid down that it came within the limits of the goldfields, and as the Council had the spending of the money, they would lay it out as they pleased. The inhabitants of Westport could see when the Superintendent and the Executive were down hero, from tho lukewarm manner in which they treated the various deputations, that they had no sympathy with the goldfields. He 'Mr Crate) came there that evenng in order that he might represent them, and he found the listrict in a suffering state from the uclemency of the weather. They vere all suffering alike in this respect, mt they should meet the difficulty joldly. The next thing was the subect of the overdraft, and in this matter ;he Council had used the Commissioner rery ill, for they had laid down £25,000 jf this overdraft to him, though there were two sums, one of £7OOO and mother of £3OOO, making in all £IO,OOO, which had not been contacted by him. He mentioned this n order to show the feeling that exsted. The times were bad, but bad as ;hey were the revenue kept up, and ;he goldfields were now out of debt. Fie would now turn to the question of inance, and should suggest that they should act firmly and respectfully, and. forward a petition to the Superntendent, pointing out the wants >f the district, and request tho nembers for the Grok 1 fields to mpport it. He had been connected with extensive works both n Victoria and elsewhere, and in •eference to the bank of the river, he vould suggest that seven T jetties ihould be constructed at a cost of G7OOO. Other gentlemen recomnended that the bank of the river ihould be lined with pile sheathing, vhich would cost about the same. The •evenue from Westport aloue was ibout £IOOO a week, which would field a revenue something else 250,000, out of which they were sntitled to two-thirds, or £17,000 [query, one-third). This woul I justly mtit e them to the sum named. The lext thins; was the building of the lospita l , for it was nonsene to remove dck men from their mates and friends. The Commissioner he knew expected the plans, but he did not think that -hey would arrive yet. With ■egard to the Estimates for 1858, t was believed they would reach 690,000 or £IOO,OOO, and the turn was made up as follows : The gold exported was expected to •each 7,000 ounces per week, which vould give at 2s 6d per ouuce duty, 644,000; customs' duties, £17,000; varden'scourtfees. £10,000; 300 publicloi.ses, at £3O yearly liceuse, £9OOO ; iiiners' rights and other items were expected to bring the «um up to about 695,000 ; deducting departmental excuses, £35,000; it would give a dis;inct sum of £60,000 for public works. SVhoever wos elected must go in prejared with figures, as his finger-ends ;o controvert any statement that might >e made prejudicial to the interests of ;he district. They were aware that vhen Mr Donne drew attention to any ocal works, the (government always ell back upon the financial difficulty, )ut this could not be the case this ieason. With regard to the money hat had been spent on the goldielcls, the great r part of it was jxpend d on Brighton and Charles»n, and although a great deal )f talk had taken place about what the Commissioner had spent and the mprovements he had made, he thought ;hat most of the improvements were lue to the gentlemen who resided mere. He found that £IB,OOO had seen expended on the road between Brighton and Cobden. He now came ;o tbe question of tracks. He had ibout the largest commission business n Otago, and he always found that racks never fulfilled the intention for vhich they were constructed. Miners wanted their provisions conveyed up ;o them at the cheapest rate possible, md this could never be done by packng, and therefore he was in favor of aying down tramways, -which were jheaper in every respect. Simple as t might appear, yet, nevertheless, t was time that the road to vVaite'a Pakihia had cost more than would lay down a tramway. If he vaß returned, he should consider it jart of his duty to advocate the laying lown of a tramway from Westport to Charleston. Westport had suffered rom the mining population not coming nto it to spend their money; but if in easy mode of conveyance was in jxistence, they would get their goods ■rom here direct. They also wanted a ?ood road up the Buller to develope ts resources. Government geologists lad been out there, one of whom was i friend of his, and had found cinnabar, ;oal, iron, copper, and other minerals. Chey might remember that when Inan-

gpihua broke out—about twelve months since—although it was a good goldfield, it did not succeed, because of the expense of packing things up there. Now, if a good road or tramway was made up the banks of the Buller, it would open up the diggings. They should also make a tramway up to the Caledonian, as he had no doubt from all that he had heard, that a large population would be localed up there in a very short time. A great deal had been said about the railway between Nelson and Cobden, but he believed that a great number who talked about it did not understand what they were taking about. It would be a good thing for Westport if they could get a railway which would be the means of spending some £300,000 or £ 100,000 among them, not to say anything of the advantages to be derived from opf>ning-up the country. The way that the"Government proposed to do this was by giving 10,000 acres of land for every mile of railway constructed, and this was agreed to hy the General Government, and Mr Stevens offered to raise the money necessary to do it, ard to give a guarantee of £IO,OOO as a pledge of his intentions. If this offer had been embraced, instead of merely surveying the line, he had no doubt by that time it would have been commenced, and therefore he was very sorry, and thought that Mr Donne, as chairman of the committee, had made a great mistake in giving his casting vote against it. A great deal had been said about cutting tracks, but good roads were preferable, as they would tend to keep men in the district.

A Voice —But you are a Nelson man.

Mr Crate—A very few of those present had the stake in Westport that he had—not even so much as a tithe. When he told them that his •children drew £4OO a year out of it, that was quite sufficient to show whether he had any interest in it. A great deal had been said about a local man, but a local man, if he was a miner or a merchant, could leave at any time, but he (Mr Crate) was bound to stick by the Buller as lone as it lasted, for his was a vested interest.

A Resident—What about 30s an acre and the coal reserve ?

Mr Crate explained that two petitions had been sent into the Council le questing that the residents on the coa reserve might be " bundled off". He saw Mr Adams, the Provincial Solicitor respecting it, and on hinting that the Government had not the power to do it that gentleman said " suppose we refuse to issue the licenses and giv>them fourteen days to clear off, what then. The police would see to that' Thinking to divert attention, he wrote the letter to the newspaper and the matter fell to the ground. He would however certainly like to see the revenues set on one side for developing the resources of Mount Roihfort. If the inhabitants of Westport choose to bring forward a local man of standing he would retire, as he had no desire to give three months' of his time for nothing.

In reply to a question as to the privileges which were to be accorded to miners on the 10,000 acres given up by the Government to the Railway Company, Mr Crate said that the miner would have precisely the same privileges as if it were Government land. He would be able to mine on it without let or hindrance, the only difference being that he would pay the money for his miner's right to the Company, instead of to the Government.

In reference to Mr Crate's statement that he was the only qualified man who had come forward, he said that if they could get any local man to " enunciate" the same views as he had done, they ought to send him in ; and if such an one came forward, he would give way. With regard to the coal reserve, he said he had petitioned the Council to give him a piece ot land at the further end of the re .erve, right away in the bush, in lieu of that brought into the market.

With reference to the coal tramway, he had tried in vain to get up a company to work it and had failed. Mr Davis, of Invercargill, was willing to lay down a plant of £50,000 if he secured ehares to the value of JE25,000, bat he (Mr Crate) didn't see the likelihood of obtaining it. Mr Hackett was now in Yictoria trying: to form a company, but he felt sure he would fail unless he could guarantee ten per cent on the capital. He (Mr Crate) had already quite as much land on the Buller as he cared about holding. A number of questions, more or less facetious, were then addressed to the candidate, to which he did not deign a reply, such as —If he were returned,

would he undertake to go to school for a quarter to learn English ? "Would he appoint Mr Neil Government Inspector of Weights and Measures ? Wou'd he put a lighthouse on the top of Mount Eochford? Would he encourage Chinese immigration? and other waggeries. Mr Jones then vacated the chair, and the meeting resolved itself into its constituent elements. After a period of comparative chaos, it was suddenly discovered that the Chairman had been allowed to depart without any acknowledgment of his services, and Mr Graham was hoisted on to the table to perform this duty, which he d : d with that urbanity arid eloquence wh : ch so remarkably distinguis' es him. After which, a sort of supplementary meeting was organised, to which Mr Crate conveyed the comforting assurance that if no better man could be found, and they would trust him, he would do his duty honestly, faithfully and candidly. Not being able to make out exactly what this last phrase meant, the meeting retired to its respective homes to ponder on it.