The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1865.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1354, 2 February 1865, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1865.

Behind the rugged and snow-elad chain of mountains which cut off Canterbury from its western sea-board and deprive the province of half its nominal territory, a settlement is now being formed under so very different conditions from those to which we have been accustomed that the settlers seem to us only partly belonging to the province and partly aliens. In other province? goldfields hare been found and taken up and worked by large vagrant populations which have introduced novelty enough. But in! our case not only the people and their pursuits are strange, but the place to which they have come has so little the appearance of being our territory, and their means of access are so remote from our own thoroughfares, that the West Coast gold-field of Canterbury may be considered almost a foreign country by the people of Christchurch. The diggers will not throng into our eastern ports, or make any road of ours their highway to the diggings, or trade with our merchants, or remit gold to our banks, or obtain their supplies by our carriers, or block up our little towns, or fill our public houses while squandering their gains. The site of the diggings is on a slip of territory remote and almost inaccessible from this side, while it is readily approachable from Nelson; and though, in some sense, the gold-finders will be part of the Canterbury people, yet in every one of the most important points incidental to a depdt of a gold-field population, the distinguished honour and material advantage arising from the "West Coast diggings will fall to the share of our sister city. The people and the Government of Canterbury are entering upon a possession, so to speak, entirely new to them in its features and characteristics, and so remote as to be almost beyond reach. The Superintendent probably feels as the Lord Mayor of London would if he were elected President of Liberia; and the Provincial Council will talk with as much lack of intelligence as the Imperial Parliament on the affairs of New Zealand.

Our special correspondent, writing from the Hokitika Kiver, in a letter published today, presents a picture of the district arouud him and the work going on there, which ought to fix the attention of the Government and public. Tli© news .ia_. essentially of the same character as that which we hare previously received from the same source, and the account given deserves the greater attention because it may be implicitly relied on. Each succeeding letter has recorded a more and more firm conviction of the field's reality; and no anticipations have been put forward in any letter which have not been amply confirmed in those which follow. The total absence of exaggeration from the beginning is the best assurance of our correspondent's accuracy; and the information which he supplies may, therefore, be used with confidence.

It is plain that the district which lies between the Grey river and the Hokitika contains a large quantity of gold. The country is not easily prospected, and therefore will not be very quickly occupied or opened out. On this account it is more likely to be comparatively lasting as a gold field, even should it be limited in extent to the area of present discoveries. The probable produce may not unfairly be estimated at fifteen hundred ounces a week, and the population at two thousand persons. The question is, what is Canterbury going to do with so many people and so much wealth F We have called the district almost inaccessible from Christchuith. Indeed, there is no chance that people and goods can be carried hence in competition with Nelson. And it would be foolish to attempt, by creating fictitious hindrances, to divert the stream ol population and commerce from the channel in which they naturally flow. It is * therefore not desirable that expensive roads should be made, and more expensive escorts maintained, to keep a stream of supplies going and gold returning between Christchurch and the Hokitika, over the Teremakau pass.

But the Provincial Government has duties to do and privileges to take advantage of, though the former may be difficult, and the latter very slight. The territory is Canterbury soil, and the people are subordinate to this Government, and to no other. Nelson cannot provide them with protection, any more than it can pocket the revenue which they produce. Protection to life and property must be given, crime must be repressed, an'd law upheld, and there is no power to do it in any person or body but the Government of Canterbury. On the other hand, revenue is going a begging. Miners' lights and business licenses rhay be issued at once to realise some three thousand pounds a year; a small sum, but still perhaps sufficient to meet the expenses of a magistrate, a commissioner, and a body of police. Besides, there is the export duty on gold, which we now receive through the Nelson Custom-house, and which seems likely to reach £10,000 a-year. This is territorial revenue, and as such is liable to some general charges; but the greater part of it ought to be spent on the spot, to render the country a little more accessible than nature has left it. Besides, the General Government may reasonably be called upon to make the Hokitika and Grey river mouths a port of entry, where duties may be levied upon imports. Allowing for the fact that goods proceeding in coasting vesselawould often have paid duty in a previous port, we may be content to set down the revenue from

this source at between £2000 and £3000 a-year, which would furnish an additional £1000 or thereabouts to the Provincial Exchequer. Surely there is here inducement enough to the Government to have the district proclaimed as a gold field, and to take

active steps towards introducing law and order.