The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 297, 14 July 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. TUESDAY, JULY 14, 1868.

The movement in Charleston, having for its object the establishment of a Progress Committee, is a step in the right direction. We do not seem ripe for Municipal Institutions in their full development, but there is undoubtedlymuch to be done, which, under the existing state of things is left undone, but which under any form of selfgovernment, however imperfect, would soon be effected. More than once we have discussed the question of Local Administration. We have pointed out, and we venture to think, have demonstrated the extreme desirability of placing the streets, wharves, the river protection, and other pressing public works in the hands of a body elected by the citizens, and responsible to them for the due performance of municipal duties. It does not appear however that the people of Westport are alive to the importance of such an organisation, or surely it would long since have been adopted. It may be, perchance, that the inhabitants desire to take advantage of the working of similar bodies in the South. In this point of view, perhaps they are acting wisely. Experience, we are told by a very old and writer, teaches more potently than the deepest and broadest mere philosophy. At the same time we cannot help saying that much may be done in the way of improvement without absolutely committing ourselves to any particular form of self-government. The streets of Westport were originally made upon a principle of co-opera-tion. The embankment now in course of formation near the National Hotel, has been undertaken, with the ass : stanee of the Government, a similar arrangement. And we see no reason whatever why many equally useful and essential works might not be carried out, if only some body were appointed to initiate, and to carry them out. We have always been ready to give credit to the Nelson Government, and to their representative, Mr Commissioner Kynnersley, for a desire to advance the interests of Westport, but we believe most strongly that those interests would be more completely consulted and advanced if the public works were entrusted, either to a municipal council, or failing that, to a progress committee, similar to the one proposed for Charleston.