The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 394, 4 November 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1868.

Whether owing to the magnitude ot' the river disaster, and the futile mission to Nelson, or to other causes, the Progress Committee have made no further advance towards consolidating local power by the institution of a municipality. Without doubt one of the chief ends of the newly created representation, is to pave the way for more extended jurisdiction, and both for their own s:\lces, and for the sake of those they represent, the sooner this is obtained the better. A Progress Committee is both a great authority, and a great good, but at the same time is acknowledgly only an ad interim substitute for genuine local self-gov-ernment. A municipality on the other hand, is endowed with powers both legislative and administrative, and its effects would speedily be ascertained if it was once formed. At the meeting that called the Progress Committee into life, the general feeling was rather in favor of the municipality bein" formed at once, and those who supported the Committee did so merely as a stepping stone to the larger and more legitimate authority. Some of thegentleinen who so expressed themselves, are now members of the Committee, and whatis more, are active and zealous members of that body. Their enthusiasm has not cooled we know, for they have large interests to guard, and in protecting themselvei they are really doing justice to the community. But that is a question altogether apart from the real issue in connection with the present subject. It is true that they have been elected, true that they possess the confidence of the citizen?, but at the same time it is equally certain that they are gifted with very limited powers, aud that however good their intentions are, they have no power to carry them out. Surely, then, it is their duty to inaugurate a sysfem of local self-government that will have some legftl'status, and nothing else lies in their power but a Municipa'ity. The way to such a change is easy ; the

task is soon accomplished ; but up to the present time, though both the speakers and the meeting generally were almost unanimously in favour of the establishment of a real po'wer in the place, nothing has been done. If the real spirit of the meeting could be condensed, it would state that those present were perfectly willing to elect a Progress Committee as an intermediate power, but that it was to be exercised only till a legally constituted authority, in the shape of a Municipal Council, could bo formed. Asy et the Committee have taken no steps to supersede, as it were, themselves, aud 'he Municipality is still a thing of the future. The process is simple; the Municipality can be easily established. How is it that the Progressists have taken no steps to effect what is admittedly requisite? Let us trust that this apathy will not longer be maintained, but that a petition, according to the Act, will soon be framed and sent round; the necessary signatures will very shortly be appended to it. It is to be hoped that no further delay will arise in at least taking preliminary steps to form a Municipality, and for this the members of the Progress Committee are responsible.