THE WESTLAND COUNTY COUNCIL.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 191, 28 August 1869, Page 6

THE WESTLAND COUNTY COUNCIL.

(From our own Correspondent.) Hokitika, August 14, The working and the results following upon a new form of government, after over a twelve-months’ trial in "Westland, cannot fail, I think, to be a subject of much interest and inquiry to those who watch the political progress of events in this Colony. I shall in this and succeeding communications refrain from giving my own opinions as to the desirableness or otherwise of extending the system of County Governments to other parts of the Colony; but in a calm spirit of strict i&partiality I will place your readers en t appoft with all that has occurred or may occur, leaving them to form their own judgments based upon a plain statement of facts. I do not, however, propose to withold the opinions as expressed by intelligent and thoughtful men, upon our position, because it is only from such expressions that anything really worth learning can be obtained. You will, perhaps, be able to understand ' that the opinions expressed by our representatives in the Council are not always entertained by the constituences at large, and I hope I may not offend your prejudices if I say the editorial enunciations of the local journals are, also not the echo of the vox populi. The truth of these assertions will make itsel manifest in the course of my next and succeeding letters. There are also other matters of interest which I propose to refer to —such as the efforts made to develop our auriferous wealth under very great difficulties ; the advances we are making in new industries, the difficulties we have to contend with from conflicting interests, the heavy drawbacks to the profitable pursuit of commerce by floods, river encroachment and the frequent closing of our bar ports owing to the silts thrown up by the combined action of wind and ocean. Ido not pi’opose to cumber my letter with such matters as are strictly of a local nature, nor with that kind of news which is generally placed under the head of “ social and domestic.” But everything likely to interest your readers, arrest their attention, or afford subject matter for reflection or investigation, I shall not fail to give. Neither shall I strive after the elegancies of refined composition, but shall express myselt as I would if I were addressing some friend or intimate whose care would be more for the subject mattter of my letter than any literary dressing it might be served up with.

Up to the present time I think the working of the County of Westland Act has proved a failure, I think it will he shortlived, and that, ere long, it will be annexed or absorbed, or amalgamated, or whatever other word may be used when it ceases to exist as a county. We are already in the fasthold of a financial dead-lock. Our account is already largely overdrawn at the Bank, and not a sixpence more will be granted. We are heavily indebted for contracts completed, and for those already un-

dertaken and proceeding with. We have a large annual sum to pay for interest and sinking fund to Canterbury. Our Customs revenue has fallen off to an alarming extent, and we are, in short, completely and so far as I can perceive, irretrievably bankrupt. Oar County Chairman, in his extreme perplexity, a few days ago telegraphed to the General Government for a loan of £43,000, which he asked to be added to the consolidated fund of the county. I need hardly say that such a request was at once ignored. Finding the application a failure, the next course was to pass a motion to request that the House of Representatives would grant the County Government powers to levy rates, in order that they might raise a loan of £50,000, by hypothecating the income to be derived from their rating powers, as security for its repayment. On the day but one following this resolution, one of the members of the Council, a barrister of great ability, and an eloquent speaker, was despatched to Wellington, to urge compliance with the resolution, at the bar of the House. And all this hasty, unconsidered legislation, was done without the people of the County haring been consulted in a matter so seriously affecting their interests. Indeed beyond the town of Hokitika nothing was known of such a resolution having been carried; for the County ambassador had departed on his mission before the more distant centres of population and the outlying districts could be acquainted with what had been done. No sooner, however, had the resolution and the action taken by the County Council become generally known, than a strong feeling against such a hasty measure was expressed on all sides. The several road boards and the borough councils of Hokitika and Greymouth, immediately sent delegates to a conference convened for the purpose of protesting against the County Council having rating powers granted. Telegrams were sent to the Colonial Ministry, and to the representatives of the County, requesting them to refuse such a concession as was about being asked for. A reply was received back stating that every opposition would be offered, and strong was the moral pressure brought to bear on the subject, that the County Chairman felt himself compelled to despatch a telegram with instructions to his ambassador not to make the request for which he had been sent. Taxed heavily—how heavily we all know—by the General Government, locally taxed by the Borough Councils assessed by the Road Boards, and submitting to various other imports, it needed only the addition of the County Council taxes to weigh us with a burden of taxation the people could not bear nor indeed would not, and ought not if they could. And these are some of the results of the County of Westland, enough, I think for one letter, although there is so much more to tell. It is probable I shall not be very far out when I said that I think the County will he short lived, and will its collapse become a cause for serious regret ? The County system was an experiment, and it has proved a failure. I know it may be argued that had the County been more ably represented in its Councils the result might have been the reverse of what it is has proved itself to be. Further explanations will perhaps show you that under ever so able ,a; direction County Governments are not suited to the exigencies of the Colony nor the genius of the people who are dwellers in it.

Our port, until the last day or two, has been inaecessahle for five weeks, excepting to small steamers with a very light draught of water, and even some of these had been detained, bar bond for days together, those outside having been unable to enter for days together, and those at the wharf compelled to remain there. At the time I write, several vessels, freight-laden, from Melbourne and inter-provincial ports have been lying at their anchors in. the roadstead for from two to five weeks. The Hokitika Bar is one of the most uncertain on the whole of the coast-line. At times, more especially after there has been a heavy fresh, the river will have a straight run out to sea, with a considerable depth of water, quite sufficient to allow any vessel to be towed in which comes to our port. Then, in a few days will be noticed a gradual silting up of one or both of the spits. A long tongue of land forms and overlaps what was a few days before the opposite spit, when the river becomes diverted, and instead of flowing out at right angles with the coast-line runs parallel with it perhaps for half-a-mile until it obtains a shallow outlet to the sea and th i navigation of the port is stopped. Ho means which we have at command will be able to effect any permanent alteration, for the sandbanks shift and change the direction of their bearings almost as frequently as the wind. It would afford food for laughter if it were not so serious a matter, to read the jealousies which exist between the com-

munity of Hokitika and that of Greymouth. Should a vessel be unsuccessful in its attempt to cross the Hokitika bar, or a steamer touch the bank, the fact is proclaimed in Greymouth and there is much exulting thereat. Should the same occur at Greymouth, which however very seldom happens, then do the people of Hokitika raise the cry. A stranger, to read the shipping columns of the opposition journals, would be led to believe that the entire prosperity of one port depended altogether upon the Closing up of the other. Yet nothing of the kind could happen. Both towns are the centres of large interests which will exist for many years in despite of the bar difficulties and river vagaries. Both towns have suffered equally from a most destructive fire which has occurred in each of them; but as in the one, so in other, the two huge gaps are filling up rapidly with new buildings. Indeed, Greymouth has completed her part and Hokitika is fast following suit. The joint losses, now that they have been accurately ascertained, quite reach £IOO,OOO I fear I have exceeded the space allotted to mo, and must wait for my next to make good what I have omitted in this. Our next Criminal Calendar will be a very heavy one. Mr. E. W. Jones, Curator of Intestate Estates for Westland, has been committed to take his trial for mis-ap-propriations; Mr. Bark, clerk in the Post Office Greymouth, has also been committed to stand his trial charged with an unnatural offence; Mr. Winter, County Treasurer, is out upon bail for £6,000. He has confessed to £2,500 deficiency in the Treasury accounts.