THE PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1871.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 918, 6 July 1871, Page 2

THE PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1871.

We notice from a short report of the proceedings of the Waste Lands Board, published in the West Coast Times of yesterday, that the Colonial Secretary has forwarded to the Board a letter recommending the Board to seb apart blocks of land along the main roads for immigration purposes. We presume that this letter is identical with similar communications emanating from the same source addressed to the Provincial Governments of Otago and Canterbury. The intimation of the wishes of the Government in this respect is a polite way of affording the local authorities the opportunity to do voluntarily that which the Government has the power to make them do compulsorily under the Immigration and Public Works Act. It was a special feature of this Act that Public Works and Immigration should go on concurrently, and probably this idea is well suited to the circumstances of some parts of the Colony. But " Immigration"— as that term is interpreted by the Public Works Act — is entirely out of place in Westland, and the request that the Waste Lands Board should set aside blocks of land along the main roads for occupation by "immigrants" affords a strong proof that the Government do not yet fully understand the condition and necessities of Westland. The West Coast Gold Fields do not require any forced immigration — this part of the Colony is not in any shape a good field for the indiscriminate importation of home immigrants — nor does it really require this artificial means of increasing its population. The judicious expenditure of a few hundred pounds here and there in opening up the country and rendering outlying localities reeasonably accessible would do ten times more good in adding to the population than the expenditure of thousands of pounds in importing people from Great Britain. The Gold Fields have a perrenial fountain of the very best sort of population for them to draw from in the adjacent Colonies. The Government have no need to pay agents, charter vessels, or advance passage-money in order to people the West Coast. There are thousands of the pick of the mining population of Australia ready to come to this part of New Zealand the moment they can see an opportunity of doing so to advantage. All that is really needed on the West Coast is to make the country accessible. There is no lack of labor ; no fear of the channels for the profitable occupation of industry opening to an extent beyond the supply of population. We have but to break down the barriers to the exploration of the country, and open up means of communication to double our population in a short time. The idea that Westland is to be regarded like Canterbury or Otago as a field for " immi»i!j.';nn" is ridiculous, and the proposal to impound some of the most valuable blocks of land in the County for the accommodation of Government immigrants, is not less unjust than absurd. There are plenty of residents in the County that will be only too ready and willing to pay a good price for the road line sections, and who will settle per-

maneutly upon them. The price of these lands applied to improving the internal means of communication would produce infinitely greater results than the method of dealing with them suggested by the Government. We should like to know, in relation to this matter, why the Colonial Secretary should address his letter to the Waste Lands Board, and pass over the County Council, as if that body were not worth the trouble of consultation ? His letters of the same tenor to the Otago and Canterbury authorities were addressed to the Superintendent of the Province, and by that officer laid before the Provincial Council. The Westland Waste Lands Board is no doubt a very useful and important body—rather too important perhaps in its comparison with the County Council — but surely the County Council is the most fitting body to express the opinion of the inhabitants upon matters of so much importance as that we have alluded to. Perhaps the Colonial Secretary may have written to the County Chairmarc, but whether or not it will be clearly the duty of Mr Lahman to bring the question before the Council. And we hope that body will without hesitation express its opinion that " Immigration," as contemplated by the Immigjation and Public Works Act, 1870, is not at all applicable to the circumstances of Westland, and that the provision desired to be made is unnecessary and contrary to the interests of the County. It is possible that the Government may consider that for its unlooked for liberality in the matter of roads to Westland it is entitled to a quid pro quo, in the form of land reserves for immigration purposes; but it should be shown that the true policy for Westland is not so much the importation of population as the internal improvement of the country — making its occupation more profitable to those who are here, and more inviting to those who are ready to come when the fieid is open for them.