NELSON PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 512, 3 June 1869, Page 3

NELSON PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

SEPAEATION OF THE SOUTH-WEST GOLDFIELDS. Mr "Wastney, on Thursday last, moved, " That this Council would be wanting in its duty to the people whose interests it represents, if it failed, before the close of the present session, to enter its most earnest and emphatic protest against any further division of the province, being convinced that such division could only lead, among many other evils, to the costly and needless multiplication of offices, and consequent addition to the burdens of the people generally, without conferring any special benefit on any portion of the province." He said he would take the present opportunity of giving an explanation of his vote on the proposed amendment to the reply to that portion of the Superintendent's address which referred to the separation of the "West Coast Goldfield. That vote had been made much of by the press, and by other parties out of doors, and those who voted in the minority on that occasion had been assailed as separationists. This was not the case ; the reason of their vote was that they wished to show a conciliatory spirit to the goldfields, and they thought the Superintendent's remarks were calculated to cause irritation. To show how their vote had been misrepresented, he would read some passages from a local paper, which were written in a most rancorous spirit. [The honourable member here read extracts from the Evening Mail7\ He said those who voted with him had not the slightest desire to favor separation, nor was their vote calculated to have any such effect.

Seconded by Mr M'Mahon. • Mr Donne considered the motion bad been framed with a view to the elections, and to enable the honorable mover and those who had voted with him to free themselves from imputations which the vote in question had brought upon them. lie thought the course taken by Mr Wastney a very undignified one, and particularly the reference he had made to a small evening paper. Everyone knew the vote spoken of had really nothing to do with the question of separation. The Council having declined, when an opportunity of doiug so was offered it, to express any opinion on separation, this was not the time for a motion like the present one. It was taking the Council by surprise to ask it to pass the present motion on the eve of the close of the session. As to separation leading to a needless multiplication of offices, he denied that such would be the case as far as the" West Coast was concerned ; and if it should be so, this could bo of no concern to that Council. The people on the goldfields had a perfect right to their opinion of what form of government would suit them best. Nelson had exercised this right in former days, and been resisted by Auckland, as Nelson now resisted the movement for local government on the AVest Coast. The motion was quite unworthy of the honorable member who brought it forward, and the Council, he hoped, would reject it. Mr Ecid spoke against the motion. It was an attempt to rush the matter through by a side-wind. No one knew of tho resolution until the mover rose to propose it. There was not even a notice paper on the table until within five minutes of the time the resolution was to bo brought forward. The question was shelved by the Council when it should have been open for fair discussion, and now, at the eleventh hour, it was attempted to be rushed through in a manner which could not result in any good to the Council or Government. The motion was put, and carried.