Page 3 Advertisements Column 3

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 669, 9 June 1870, Page 3

TO THE ELECTORS OE WESTLAND NORTH. piENTLEMEN I beg to offer myself as a candidate for the honor of representing you in the General Assembly. I apologise to you for thus coming forward without any invitation, having full confidence, that our long acquaintance will be considered by you a sufficient excuse for my dispensing with customary formalities. Should you do me the honor to return me as your representative I should go to the House as au independent member, not pledged to support the Government, but disposed to do so, unless a closer study of public affairs should lend to the conviction that it would be, very clearly, for the benefit of the Colony that the present Ministers should give plaee to others. The Maori question is at present of paramount importance, and the management of Native affairs, by the present Defence Minister, appears to me to be more judicious and successful than that of any of his predecessors. "With regard to the relations of the Colony with the United Kingdom and with the Australian Colonies, I may say, that while sbrongly opposing any measure calculated to tend to the alienation of this colony from the mother country, I should think it advisable to keep always in view the possibility of a separation taking place, and to prepare for it by consolidating and centralizing the powers and resources at present dispersed among the Provinces in one strong, national, New Zealand Government. I should advocate the abolition Of the existing Provincial Institutions and at the same time provide for the extension of true local self-government in matters of purely local interest, by dividing the whole colony into small compact districts, with good natural boundaries, and allotting to each district a certain fixed proportion of the revenue derived from it, to be administered by a local board, constituted in the most simple and inexpensive manner that could be devised. Upon the subject of free trade, I confess to entertaining some doubts as to whether the generally received doctrines are universally applicable, and I am rather inclined to believe that there may be a period during the growth of a young nation when protection to native industry, although economically disadvantageous, may be politically expedient, but as to whether this is at present the condition of this country my opinion is not yet completely formed. I should endeavour to obtain the introduction of some measure to define clearly and distinctly the respective rights of freeholders, holders of agricultural and pastoral leases and licenses, and of'miners' rights, with regard to mining for gold and operations connected therewith. I would gladly join the representatives of other goldfields in promoting some general well-considered scheme, for the encouragement of the formation of large water races, in localities where there might be satisfactory reasons for believing that the 'outlay would be reproductive. I would endeavour to obtain increased representation for Westland North, and generally to bring prominently forward the fact that the vital existence of the colony is at present chiefly dependent upon its goldfields, and urge the Legislature to devote to them the attention which they deserve and require. I shall take an early opportunity of meeting you, and making a fuller statement of my views upon these and other matters, and of my reasons for entertaining them, and I can only assure you, that if you confer upon me the honor of representing your important district, with which I have been connected almost from its first occupation, I sball endeavour to do my duty to it as I always have done, and shall feel much pride and pleasure in representing the largest, wealthiest, and most populous constituency in New Zealand. I am, gentlemen, "Sour obedient servant, T. A. SNETD EYNNEESLEY. Nelson, June Ist, 1870.