The Westport Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 456, 23 January 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1869.

We have already referred to the amount of representation which,under the Provincial system, is accorded to the western portion of Nelson Province as altogether inadequate and manifestly unfair. If this were a mere accident, if it arose from any difficulty in rapidly expanding the representation in proportion to the population, there might be less cause for complaint. But such is not the case. It is a condition of things not only tacitly approved of, but openly advocated by those who, in the other parts of the Province, are ; themselves presumed to be popularly i elected. It is in accordance with the 1 expressed opinions of even the highest ' authority in the Province —the Super--5 intentlent himself. It is their theory ; that portions of country which may be ; gazetted as goldfields are less worthy of representation than districts -which are devoted to the purposes of a i kitchen-garden, or than other districts i which are designed or destined to beoecu- | pied only, and air all time, assheepwalks. f It is their delusion that, in believing ' this, they are believing the truth. ). And,dressed in a little brief authority, ' thev adapt their practice to their a theory. They arc distinguished, in their dealings with others, by the open 1 exercise of their powers under the in- • fluence of this damnable delusion. t That this is neither theory nor delusion on our part is abundantly illusr trated by their words as well as their - actions. No later than the last session !1 of the General Assembly, we find the - Superintendent of this Province, Mr >' Curtis, uttering such sentiments as „ these : " I cannot concur in the propriety j P- f i?^jiia?x§ v^«|P«A u ?9? I w^lin n nls ,i fio settled place in the country, and which o for the most part has no home or pro- " perty —who are but wayfarers iu the land, the greater number being here 0 for a time only and ready to go off at .. a moment's notice on the finding of a new and more favorable gold field —I J say it is not safe to hand over to a population of that description the .' management of tho whole of the land fund and other revenue raised in the districts, or the carrying out of ) those colonising functions which are at present entrusted to the Provinces." Iu this sentence there are embodied, > as amply as we have ever seen, the , ignorance and the selfishness which i have, throughout these colonies, been ' prolific of evil effects. No one will - deny that, to a certain extent, a mining population is migratory. So are we all, including even Mr Curtis himself, else ho would not bo in Nelson, and undoubtedly never iu a Superintendent's chair. But that they are "neces sarily" migratory is a mistake. Or . even if they are so, the necessity is not inherent in them or their nature. It is much more in the nature of their surroundings, of which Mr Curtis ' happens to be, in Nelson, a not unim--1 portant item. If they are ready "to ■ go off at a moment's notice " it is, I as Mr Curtis says, on "the finding of . a more favorable gold-field." And it is that very fact which should induce Mr Curtis and such as he to make their present field as "favorable" as possible. He may depend upon it that, if men can have their condition 1 ameliorated by the existence of easy means of conveyance, by provisions at other than famine prices, and by the ready acquisition of what are probably Mr Curtis's own ambition—the rights of a laudlord—a considerable majority would soon find for themselves " a settled place in the country." It was the ignorance and the selfishness )f authorities and their friends which interfered with the realisation of this in another Province of New Zealand—a result which it is now tho effort of their successors as far as possible to undo. It was partially this whieh aggravated the exodus from Victoria. Yet has there ever been a Prime Minister of Victoria who has uttered the sentiments of this Nelson novitiate that a mining population have " no home or property," and are "but wayfarers in the iaud?" i

The Superintendent, in tlie same speech, and in allusion to the possible ' demand for Separation, said something ' whieh certajnly sounds curious in . justa-poxitionwith one of his sentences quoted above. Above be says that " it is not safe to hand over to a population of this description the management of the land fund or other revenue" or " the carrying out of"—forsooth ! " the colonising functions of the Provinces." And in tho sentence we refer to he says: —"The province of Nelson with some of its best pastoral and agricultural land already taken

away, is threatened with the loss of the richest of its mineral districts, and to be left with its town alone, with a small agricultural district, and a clump: of worthless hills at the ba?k, and at the same time with the staff which it is obliged to maintain for the entire Province." Now without saying a

word about Nelsou's discharge of her colonising functions during the many years in which she has not induced to her shores a single immigrant, how docs Mr Curtis's argument read r 1 It is " not safe " —mnrk the words, and apply them as you choose —" not safe " to hand over to the population of the richest mineral district the management of their own revenue, but it is " safe " —how much more " safe!" — to leave its management to " the town alone, with a small agricultural district, and a clump of worthless hills at the back." " Safety "is the word ; and thus it is that W£ find the " richest mineral district " represented in the Nelson Provincial Council by rrvE members, and "' the town alone, with a small agricultural

district, and a clump of worthless hills," by TWENTY-ONE. Can it be, under such circumstances, altogether incomprehensible to our friend, the editor of the Colonist, why Separation should be sought for ? Can we be expected to be geueious, if Nelson is so unjust ?