West Coast Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1867.

West Coast Times, Issue 603, 30 August 1867, Page 2

West Coast Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1867.

PABTJIEKT.

The " Nelson Examiner criticises the Westland Separation petition in a spirit by no means uncandid, although many <jf its arguments are based upon the same imperfect knowledge of the circumstances and resources of the district, that is betrayed by all writers upon Westland affairs who have not had the opportunity of an intimate personal acquaintance with them. The " Examiner," as a matter of course, favors the Grey programme — which would result, if it were capable of beiug realised, in the annexation of an important and rich district to the Nelson province. Making allowance for this bias, the article we reprint in another column is fair in its general tone. It takes exception to the estimate of fifty thousand as that of the population of West Canterbury ; but the exact numbers of the people is of very little importance to the discussion. Whether the population be fifty thousand or thirty thousand, the material allegations of the petition are not in any way affected. The case of Separation does not rest upon the accuracy with which the population of the district is estimated, in the absence of all official statistics. In a recent debate in the House of Representatives, Mr Moorhouse put dowu the population of Westland at 35,000. Let that be assumed to be a nearer approximation to the truth than is contained in the petition, and in what sense is the prayer of the petition weakened ?

The "Examiner" adopts the usual tone in speaking of the probable permanency of the resources of the district. We have little but gold to depend upon, and gold is necessarily a precarious dependance. The yield of gold may fall off; may cease altogether. Of course it may — and so may the flocks and herds of East Canterbury be swept away, and barrenness and desolation take possession ot the land. But is it probable that either possibility will become a reality ? Men base all their movements in )ife — all their plans and calculations upon moral probabilities, not on mathematical certainties. Westland is right in taking its stand upon the assumption that its gold resources are practically inexhaustible. Mining is here a settled industry, not a hazardous speculation. The experience of the past thi-ee years not only warrants the conclusion, but establishes the fact, that gold is distributed throughout the district under conditions that will ensure profitable occupation to labor for an indefinite number of years to come — every year witnessing the increased investment of capital iv fixed machinery. Why, where the precious metal is so generally diffused, gold-mining should be regarded as a more ephemeral or temporary industrial occupation than lead or copper mining, or coal mining, it is not easy to understand. No other metal or mineral auy more than gold, undergoes a process of constant reproduction like vegetable crops. All mining is an exhaustive process. But

the process of exhaustion is a long, protracted one. No doubt its attendant condition here will be the gradual clearance pf the ground for other forms of industry, possessing all the elements of permanence. The " Examiner" asks us to point out what industries we can count upon "in case of the failure of gold-mining?" It would be almost as reasonable to challenge a great agricultural district, to show upon what industries it could depend in case of the failure of rain, or the destruction of the reproductive energies of the soil. We shall be content to cease to be a Province, if by the time our goldfields utterly fail we have not began to develope the other sources of as fair and fertile a country as exists in New Zealand. In doubting 'the truthfulness of the allegations contained in the Petition, of the " deliberate and settled hostility " of the majority of the Provincial Council towards Westland, the " Examiner " speaks with no practical knowledge of the real facts of the case. Our contemporary, however, admits that it is sufficiently established that the interests of the district have been very much neglected : that its just complaints have been treated with indifference; and that the only remedy in which its inhabitants can depend, is to obtain in greater measure the management of their own affairs. The " Nelson Examiner " is, of course, not of opinion that this end can be best effected by the creation of a new Province of which Greymouth shall be a part.

Ouit Evening contemporary is an ingenious trimmer, but not a very sage politician. It took the opportunity last night of broaching some extraordinary theories. Setting out with the assertion that Mr Bonar and Mr Prosser were like as two peas, only that Mr Prosser was the bigger pea of the two— Qic writer states that Mr Bonar being a salaried officer, as Secretary for the Goldfields, will be bound to vote with his Government. It is commonly held, we believe by constitutional writers, that no man can really be said to hold a responsible political office who is not salaried ; and no evasion of the law of constitutional checks is more carefully guarded against, by those who are the guardians of the public liberties, than the appointment of administrative chiefs of departments who, not standing represented on the Estimates, are altogether removed from the control of Parliament. A non-salaried Goldfields Secretary is a brilliant idea to begin with.

" But by electing Mr Prosser we secure additional strength in the Provincial Council." Mr Bonar is to act in the Executive without a seat in the Council, and Mr Prosser in the Council without a seat in the Executive ! That " will be better than Mr Bonar filling both places." A conclusion which the writer very forcibly adds " is self-evi-dent," and is removed therefore from the category of conclusions that have to be proved. Of course theman inthe Executive who is kept out of the Council, and the man in the Council who has kept him out of it, are to "work in combination,' Mr Prosser's duty being to support the Goldfields Secretary through thick and thin in the House in which he is not allowed to appear himself — and not to leave him " working single-handed." " With tw j such able men, backed by other Westland representatives, and supported by the conscientious members on the other side of the ranges, it is within the bounds of possibility that Westland may come by its own " Very much indeed " within," we should say. " Fortunately it is not held as a sine qua non that our Goldfields Secretary should hold a seat in the Provincial Council — and we opine that some vacant seat will be found for Mr Bonar on the other side of the intervening ranges. . . . The electors on this occasion will have very little difficulty in making their choice. . . . The electors will have nothing to do with the candidates. They are admitted both of them to be good men quite able for their work." It is scarcely credible that nonsense of this kind should be put into print. Eveu with the most painstaking endeavor to trim, and avoid giving offence to either party, there should be maintained, for common decency's sake, some show of principle. What are we to think of a piece of writing in which are so jumbled up all sorts of absurd suggestions ? A responsible Minister not in the Provincial Council ! A member of the Council who has secured his election by defeating the Minister, acting as his ally in the House from which he has excluded him ! A Westland Secretary beaten on his own ground, content to sit for a pocket borough on the other side of the ranges! Is it by putting forward such sham is*ues that we are to endeavor lo trim our sails equally, and tickle both parties, hoping to share their favors equally? Let the case be put honestly. If Mr Prosser is elected on this occasion, he will go into the Council as the political enemy of Mr Bonar and of the Government to which he belongs, and as the repudiator of the concession which was tardily made in compliance with the repeated request of the Westland members for the appointment of a responsible minister. If Mr Bonar is returned, it will be a proof that the pepple of Hokitika have no desire to discredit the labors of their representatives, and no wish to refuse a substantial reform in the administrative system as an instalment of their full claims.

Mb Prosser says that "the appointment of Goldfields Secretary is in direct opposition to the votes of a majority of the Provincial Council, as expressed in division upon two distinct occasions in the last session" — and therefore it is not likely the appointment can be sanctioned by the Provincial Council at its next sittiugs." We fancy Mr Prosser has not been a very

careful reader of the proceedings of the Council. Whether the appointment of a Goldfields Secretary is likely to be sanctioned by the Proviucial Council, may be inferred from the fact which Mr Prosser ignores, that in schedule D of the Appropriation Act appear the following items :—: — Class 1. — Secretary por Goldfields Di-

lecretary for G-oldfii Jnder-Secretary ?rayelling expenses Jlork Contingencies iolc i ds | (nine months) >) )! £451 37i 201 26: 10