The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1884. AMALGAMATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1626, 6 March 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1884. AMALGAMATION.

On Saturday next tlie Wairarapa County West Council will discuss an amalgamation proposal. The union of Counties East and West will be debated, but we scarcely hope to see any practical result from the discussion. It is a pity that so large a question could not bo settled on its merits, but we cannot depend upon this. Is there to be no community of interests in the Wairarapa no representative body which can watch large questions, and give a voice to them? Is the Wairarapa ever to be split up into antagonistic Road Boards and rival townships with no superior body to reconcile their petty differences, and remind them that they have some interests that are identical, and that union on such points will alone give strength and prestige to the district of which they are factors ? We fear not! So many of our public men appear to have axes of their own to grind, which prevent them from doing justice to the district and to the position which they hold as its leaders, ' We have had men amongst us in the past who could be depended upon when any large question was at issue to say and do that which was right rather than that which was expedient. Wo have still some such men amongst us, who are not only , capable of "taking broad views, but who will also subordinate narrower J. -ii: 1 •» »i

men who make themselves popular by acting as if a particular Road Board or township were the Wairarapii. Wc have but one local institution which is really Wairavapa in its character, viz,: the Pastoral Society, and we almost question whether it will survive the division and sab-division of interests which on all sides receives so much encouragement. The tone of a district, its influence in the councils of the colony depend very much on the high character of its public men, Local jealousies must necessarily exist in this community as in all others, but they may bo either fostered or modified by the representative men of the district. The tendoncy latterly has been to foster them, and with this spirit-abroad the chance of union is a poor one. The light in which it is regarded is not: " will it bo good for the district]" but " will it suit the coming general election 1' (