THE THEEE COUESES.

West Coast Times, Issue 594, 20 August 1867, Page 2

THE THEEE COUESES.

(fbom the hokitika despatch, august 17.) The enthusiastic meetings that have been held during the week at Stafford Town and the Kanieri, prove that the heart of the people is sound, and that at hst there has been aroused in Westland a mighty public opinion, whose force will be irresistable if it be directed to the attainment of a practical object. At both meetings the course taken by the League was unanimously approved of, and the Petition adopted without dissent. The people throughout the mining districts breathe a healthy atmosphere of independent thought , and are free from the petty clique inn uences and jealousies that prevail, we are sorry to say, to so large an extent in Hokitika. There is another fact, whic h no doubt accounts for the readiness and unanimity with which they welcome the prospect of such a change in the political system as the Petition prays for. They arc the chief sufferers from the course of injustice that has been pursued towa rds Westland by those who have us and our interests in their absolute keeping. The unscrupulous mode in which the Estimates for roads and works were cut down for the purpose of erecting a fund to be confiscated to Eastland purposes, will affect the mining population most closely and most mischeviouslyl To them the opening up of the country|and the formation of serviceable roads is a matter of the most vital importance,o rtance, and one upon which they naturally feel strongly. We may congratulate the Separation Lpague upon the substantial support they have every prospect of receiving, and with the encouragement that has been given to them, we trust they will press the matter forward with all speed and diligence, so that the requisite number of signatures to the petition may at once be procured.

With reference to the hesitation manifested in some quarters to join the League and unite in the prayer of the petition, it is a somewhat curious circumstance that no one of them has ever yet propounded a practical plan for securing any redress of grievances other than Separation pure and simple. We have heard a great deal about annexing ourselves to Nelson, and still more about placing ourselves in the hands of the General Government. But the advocates of these specifics fail to tell us how annexation to Nelson is to be obtained. What is the course of procedure to be adopted ? What are the terms of the law requiring to be complied with, and the nature of the allegations to be set forth and proved in the petition ? Besides, what is to be annexed to Nelson ? Is it the part of the district souih as well as the part of it north of the Teremakau ? Is it intended that the rule of Nelson should extend down the whole length of the 210 miles of sea coast that constitute the • sea boundary of this distinct? If such is the kind of Separation to be sought, is it likely that the representatives of the other provinces, in the present state of provincial rivalries, [ would assent to such an enormous aggrandisement of Nelson ? Is the meaning of tho advocates of annexation that the town of Nelson at the northern- extremity of the proposed new province should be the scat of Government, being distant so many miles from its extreme southern boundary ? If Nelson is to be abandoned as the capital, and some other and more central town selected, are the Nelsoniles themselves likely to assent to such an arrangement ? If they were, which town is intended to be selected ? Do our Hokitika friends who object to the establishment of a new province of Wesrland, incline favorably to tho establishment of head-quarters at Greymouth and the reduction of this town to a secondary position? If the cry of Greymouth for annexation of the country north of the Tereinakau to the Province of Nelson is to be supported by Hokitika men, on what ground is the support to be given ? In what way would such a step as that further the interests of this part of the district ? Would it not leave us more completely than we are at present, bound hand and foot, at the mercy of Christchurch. Do gentlemen really reflect what they are aiming at when they give their preference to some visionary scheme, the details and working of which they arc wholly unable to explain and thus submit to the criticism .of its opponents — over one which is simple, intelligible, legal, and practicable ?

To take- another view of this annexation idea. Where is the logic of the men who incline to it ! The argument is. that the Kelson Government has treated the diggers belonging to its own Province more justly and more generously, than the Ohrißtchurch Government have treated the digger*, of this district. Bit

what would become of " the Nelson Government" if the forty or fifty thousand inhabitants of We^stland were added to that province ? The Nelson Government, to which so much gratitude is now expressed, would be a thing of the past — swept away by the deluge of the new state of affairs. The influence of the new district would be predominant ; or if not predominant so nearly equal that the struggle of interests would at once begin, and the rivalries and jealousies of which we have already seen enough be repeated on a new stage.

As to placing the district under the the General Government, no explanation of what is intended by that project has been vouchsafed to us ; or rather, no suggestion made of the machinery it is intended to call into play, or of the measures by which that machinery is to be erected. Led by these gentlemen, we are following a simple will-o'-the-wisp. Mr Wynn Wnliams's resolutions advised the establishment of a simple and economical form of Government. But when pressed in conversation to define tLe form of Government he meant, his only reply was that that was the work of the General Assembly. The scheme has been advocated as a particular form of " Separation" ; but is there any Separation from an existing Province provided for by the Constitution, except the creation of a new Province out of the separating district ? We are not awai'e that there is. Nor can we underderstand how any special form of Government can be enacted for this district, which shall at the same time deliver us from Christchurch control and save us from the trouble of governing ourselves by the establishment of the usual provincial institutions.

The promoters of the Petition therefore have this great advantage over those who hold themselves aloof from the movement: that they offer a simple legal attainable remedy, whilst the other two ideas that have been propounded are at present nothing»more than intangible myths.