POLITICAL.

West Coast Times, Issue 838, 30 May 1868, Page 5

POLITICAL.

The political incidents of the month have been unimportant. The meeting of the General Assembly has -been again deferred. The County Council has not been in session. The two seats in the House of Representatives for the County of Westland, have been filled by the return of Mr Harrison as the member for the Westland Boroughs, and of Mr Barff as the member for the Goldfields District.

The success of the Act under which the County of Westland has been established is still problematical. Hitherto it has scarcely resulted in the establishment of a system of substantive selfgovernment. Only one session of the County Council lias been held, and for anything that appears to the contrary the course of administration would have gone on just as well and just as much in the same fashion, if the Council had never been established. Its next meet-

ing is looked forward to with some interest, because it is hoped that it will make a more effective assertion of its powers as a political body than it did during its last sitting. If we 'must pronounce the County Council to have been thus far a failure, the Road' Boards, established under the same Act, have been perhaps more so. Little is heard of their proceedings, and little interest taken in them. On the whole, it cannot be said that the idea of popular government has been realised in Westland. The machinery of administration continues in action, but its action is very little influenced by any local agencies. If we had no representative body at all, the probabilities are that the practical difference would be inappreciable. We have a Chairman of the County Council who is the Acting Executive. We have a County Secretary who helps the Chairman. And that is the sum total of our system of local government.

The tempers of the people is one of extreme quietude. Material considerations are held in far higher regard than political. With the general prevalance of commercial and industrial prosperity ; with goldfields continuing to yield their average return ; with no complaint in any business circle beyond the occasional one that " times are dull" ; there is little interest felt or displayed in political matters. Our local politics are centred in such common place matters as the making of roads, the improvement of the streets, and the sale of lands. They talk politics up at Wellington. When the Assembly is in session, questions conected with the natives and the Maori war ; the finances of the colony ; the loan system ; the comparative advantages of centralism and provincialism, furnish themes for the orators of our Colonial Parliament to wax eloquent upon. But they are not matters on which our own population has any direct interest — or feels any. They pay their taxes and follow their industrial pursuits, and " are content to live under the laws that are made for them, and pay the imposts that are levied on them. The expectation that the establishment of a system of local government in the district would create any active political life, has been entirely falsified by events. There is no district in the whole of the Queen's dominions in which politics are less thought of, and create less interest. It may be said, "'Happy are such a people," and there may be truth in the saying. Be this as it may, we have no politics to record in our present monthly record, and must content ourselves with a simple summary of domestic incidents.

The political trials which have taken place during the month have, of course, excited a good deal of attention, not only in the district, but in the neighboring colonies. We give as full a report of the proceedings as their interest requires. But one feeling prevails as to their issue, viz., that whilst the law has been vindicated, and a movement that might have proved most mischievous been promptly and effectually checked, the prisoners charged with offences against the State have been dealt with in a spirit of merciful consideration. It is hoped that the result of the trials will be to allay all national animosities. For this result, the public will be greatly indebted to the most temperate, able, and conciliatory defence of the prisoners by Mr Ireland, their principal counsel