COUNTY OF WESTLAND.

West Coast Times, Issue 659, 4 November 1867, Page 3

COUNTY OF WESTLAND.

TO THE EDITOB OF TIIE ITTTELTON TIMES. Sie — In confirmation of the views advanced by me regarding the Westland County Bill, I desire that you may grant me space to point out a few tilings in an article from the West Coast Times, which you republish this morning. First of all, the West Coast Times looks forward hopefully to the administration of the bill so long as Mr Hall is entrusted with the chief power under it. But Mr Hall cannot be expected to retain that position always. What then? Again, we are told that the measure is a " tentative" one. This, I presume, means experimental. "Its success," says the West Coast Times, " depends to a very large extent indeed upon the spirit in which it is carried out." That is to say, if the provisions of the bill are liberally and generously construed in favor of the district, it is well; if they are construed according to the strict letter of the law, it is not well. The bill " confers large powers at the outset on the Colonial Executive." Nothing is even hinted as to the powers it confers on the people. But the writer could not, with the bill before him, give anything but one decision, and it is conveyed in the following words :—": — " It places Westland in their [the Colonial Executive's] hands." What a humiliating confession ! The bill places Westland at the morcy of the Colonial Executive. If it is generously inclined, so far good ; if not, the law is there to justify it in doing as it likes. Even the power of regulating the land system — a power which the diggers have always shewn the utmost jealousy about — the only thing, in fact, that they have taken any interest in, and about which they have always claimed the utmost freedom of local selfmanagement ; even this is taken from them, and "given absolutely to the Go vernor in Council." What do Messrs Barfi", and Hoos, and Whall say to this ? Arc they satisfied ? Above all, are the diggers satisfied ? In the next sentence wo reach the climax of this wonderful confession by the West Coast Times :—: — " His Excellency is, in fact, made a sort of Dictator or Protector." For his Excellency, read Mr Stafford and his colleagues. And now, what is the only safeguard which the people of Westland have under this precious Bill ? Let the West Coast Times tell: — " The Government have every interest in making the present experiment against Provincialism a marked success." Truly this is an abiding shield for tho utterly helpless against the all-powerful and unscrupulous. You observe it assumes two things : first, that the Bill is an experiment against Provincialism ; and second, that tho Ministry who framed it will always remain in power. Well, the first assumption is perhaps right enough ; but what of the second? Are Mr Stafford and his col1 cages to remain in office always? I think not; and hence it follows that a Ministry may come in who have no interest in making the experiment a marked success. But, Sir. what conclusions do we draw from a confession that a certain form of Government will be made to work successfully and for the good of the people, because it is to the interest of those -who devised it to make it a success in contrast to something which is passing away ? Only this, that the people who accept such Government, on such conditions, do not appreciate real liberty, and do not deserve to have it. The people of Westland, by their own confession, have surrendered their liberties absolutely into tho hands cf Mr Stafford, and ho has given them no legal guarantee that he will respect them. It may bo to his interest now to respect their local wants, local prejudices, and local aspirations; but in a few months some other interests, more powerful and more pressing, may compel Mr Stafford in another way. At the beginning of tho late session of the General Assembly, and when the Colonial Treasurer made his financial statement, it was apparently Mr Stafford's interest to consolidate the public debts on a basis just and equitable, alike to the colony and bondholders. But before the session was over, it was Mr Stafford's interest to bow humbly beforo that power which is behind and greater than the Treasury, and to perpetrate what Dr ( Continued in page 'LJ

Counts WESTLAUCD.—CContinnedfrompage S.J Featherston called a gigantic swindle on the colonists, for the sole benefit of the Bank of New Zealand and a few speculators. Let the people of Westland bear this in mind. If they had some substantial guarantee for Mr Stafford's generosity in the shape of six or seven votes in the House of Representatives, he would treat them as generously as he has treated Auckland. But they have no such thing. The West Coast Times is fully aware that the Bill does not give the people of the district real local self-government, and has no hesitation in saying so. It appeals to Mr Stafford to recognise the fact that the Bill was accepted m Westland " as a concession to the demand for local selfgovernment." It is not the thing itself you see. What do the Press and its friends say to this ? Will they continue to tell us that it is for our benefit to give up a reality in order that we may get a " concession ?" Would they have _us throw away our only protection against Mr Stafford and his friends of the North Island, who have not hesitated to avow their belief that our land fund ought to be made common property, or their desire to seize it when they can, and go humbly on our knees with the whining petition. " Please, Mr Stafford give us a ' concession ?' " Is this what the Press and the Abolitionists wish us to do ? If not letthem tell us in plain language, which we can all understand, what it is they are driving at. if a man comes to me and says, " That's a clumsy expensive sort of plough you use, Mr Brown; throw it aside and I will give you something better and cheaper," would I not be a thrice-dyed fool if I did not first ask to see the article he proposed to give me? Would my fellow men not set me down as a born idiot if I smashed the instrument I possessed before I had actually handled the other and satisfied myselt that it was both better and cheaper? And would I not be a still greater idiot if, voluntarily throwing away what I had, I trusted implicitly to the generosity of the man who merely said he would give me something superior ? Well, Sir, I don't consider myself a fool, and in this matter of local self-government I want to know for certain, and in a binding legal way, first, that I will get anything at all for what I give up ; second, that it will be better than what I now possess ; and third, that it will not cost so much, which letter is really the principal thing I have to complan of. Those gentlemen who advocate the abolition of Provincial institutions know well enough that I and many others are far from satisfied with them as they now exist, and they seem inclined to take advantage oi this dissatisfaction to work out their own ends. But they mistake me very much indeed, and I think they mistake the majority of my fellow colonists in Canterbury if they fancy for a moment that we are going to give up absolutely what we ,do possess and know all about, for a shadowy something about which they have told us nothing. The people, I take it, are not so mad as that after all that has come and gone. Even Mr Cutler, who managed to carry a resoiution in the Town Hall in favor of the abolition of Provincial institutions, would if I have read his character aright, liice to know what the Press proposes in their place. And surely Mr Cutler, who justly enough possesses some influence among Ms own class, would not ask them to take a leap in the dark. In conclusion, I would once more refer to the Westland County Bill, and undestood by the West Coast Times, which must, of course, be taken as the mouthpiece of the Westland people in this case. The utmost power that is claimed for tbe Westland Council under the new bill is the power of "passing resolutions." Sir, if the matter were not so very serious, one would feel inclined to laugh at this. But it is above ridicule, and too vitally important to provoke anything but pity — pity for those who have been duped into the belief that it is wise to accept the shadow for the substance which they were led to expect. And this is the kind of Government which the people of East Canterbury are advised to take in lieu of that which they have ! Sir, our Provincial institutions are costly beyond our resources ; they want, as you have pointed out in your leading columns, a most radical reform ; but, I would times rather have them with all their faults than that miserable, empty thing which has been given to Westland. Your obedient servant, D. Christchurch, October 31, 1867.