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Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1414, 17 June 1865, Page 4

After the public have made up their minds for several weeks upon the value which ought .to be attached to the Rakaia Pass discovery, and have expressed their opinion in plain language in the ears of the Government, it is somewhat amusing to find two sections of the party which has hitherto supported the Government dividing and quarrelling on the point. The self-suf-ficiency which has distinguished the Government still distinguishes its supporters, who argue at, condemn, and vilify oneanother, as if one was the acknowledged party of progress, and the other believed its policy of prudence to be supported by a majority. Except for the damaging delay which so seriously affects the public interest, there is nothing but what is laughable in this falling-out of the Executive and their personal supporters amongst themselves on a matter which has never seemed to need discussion by the public at large. But the argument has gone far enough. We want now something more than bitter reproaches from servant to master, and testy retorts from master to servant; we want something done. The navigation of the Hokitika river is in a perilous state. The bar is reported to us, on good authority, to have closed up of late and become very difficult to pass ; and little improvement is expected before the spring floods, the effect of which cannot be certainly predicted as likely to produce more good than harm. At the same time, the diggings are reported to be rich in gold, and the work of exploration and settlement progresses fast over the fertile district of the West Coast. This is the time, then, to make use of all thu facilities which nature has afforded for the transit of people, cattle, and goods from one side of the province to the other. If the Government do not hasten to provide a road by Mr. Browning's pass, and to search at once for some better road, if it is at all likely to be found, they are blind to the interests of the province; and they will be, in such case, blind to their own interests also, for if negligence be shown in so important a matter, not all the minor virtues of administration added together will cover the fault.