THE ANTI-SEPARATION PETITION.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 519, 19 June 1869, Page 2

THE ANTI-SEPARATION PETITION.

(From the Nelson Colonist.') Mr Lightband prosecuted his work under great difficulty, much contumely, and not a little abuse from those who had set their hearts on separation, and who, it appears, exercised in some cases something like a terrorism over storekeepers and others opposed to separation, so that they were afraid to express it in the hot-bed of the movement. Agents were sent to dog Mr Lightband's steps; but in spite of all that he succeeded in obtaining some 600 signatures, and he discovered that a vast number had signed the Separation petition on such representations as that, if separation were granted, one miner's right would give its holder the privilege of mining on any goldfield in New Zealand, an argument in keeping with the other methods employed to get names. The newspapers were hostile to Mr Lightband ; they were also, he reports, singularly unjust, as we see by certain reports of meetings he held, especially one at Charleston, where figures he read, compiled from the Treasurer's accounts and showing the actual sums paid to and received from the West Coast G-oklfields were carefully suppressed, while others given by his opponents, utterly fallacious though they were, were duly paraded. Any correction of such statements, any letters in explanation, any narrative of facts, were symtematically refused publication.

Last week Mr Lightband arrived at Westport, and there hi 3 petition with the signatures attached was—stolen ! Between the hours of six and ten o'clock his bedroom was entered, his courier-bag torn open, his papers were scattered on the floor, and the petition, with its accompanying signatures, was abstracted. Stolen ! The thing has its ludicrous side, at which even tho robbo.l Lichthand must secretly chuckle while bemoaning the loss of his month's arduous labor. But what a commentary on the character of the movement; what a disgrace to the separation committee that it can employ men whom even robbery does not stay in their efforts to suppress tho truth! No wonder that a respectable journal like the Westport Times is ashamed of the transaction, and sensibly perceives that such conduct must necessarily damage a cause which is bolstered up by burglary. Heaven help the " county" win di would owe its origin to such nefarious 'practices. Some sage, (we believe it was the English Punch,) said nearly a score of years ago, that the " devil is an ass." And he was right, for roguery, after shivering on the narrow threshold that divides pos.nblo success from, absolute failure, freque7itly o'orleaps the boundary, and falls, andfails, on the other side. Probably, no keener blow to the separation movement could have been given than that conveyed in this contemptible robbery. What will the Legislature in Wellington say when it caches the ears of senators ? Excluding a small percentage of political adventurers who live by such wits as heaven has mysteriously given them, and who think to thrive on the vulgarest agitations,—excluding these, the House of is largely made up of gentlemen whose sense of right and uprightness will make them recoil from deeds like this, and who will think twice ere the? give a large district, a large population, and many important interests, into hands which can descend to tho employment of agents who, in tho most practical fashion, justify burglary as means to an end.

(From the Examiner) The party in "Wcstport with whom the movement for separation originated, first by misrepresenting facts to obtain support for their cause, and now by stooping !to an act of felony in order to suppress the free expression of opinion on the other side, show how eminently qualified they arc to be entrusted with the powers of governing a district like the Southwest Gold, fields.

(Prom the Mail.) Judging from the tone of the press, and the spirit of hostility that has been almost universally evinced on the West Coast towards Mr Lightband and his mission, we are not disposed to accept the explanation offered by the Westport Times of the spiriting away of a document which might possibly have proved injurioiis to the interests of the agitators for separation, and we should like to hear a little more evidence on the sxibject before making up our mind that the abstraction of this petition with its numerous signatures was merely meant as " a capital lark."