WESTLAND PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1643, 10 November 1873, Page 2

WESTLAND PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

[to the editor.] . Sir— Notwithstanding the new Provincial Council of Westland will have to meet an empty advantage of the "Provincial Wars Bill,!' which will in all probability become law at the next session of the Colonial Parliament, they may seem to the Province a state of. permanent prosperity it has never yet enjoyed, because we have one thousand of acres of undeveloped auriferous country, together with our quartz reefs, at present our great want to secure & large industrious and contented population, which Would

replenish our exchequer by increasing our revenue is a regular and cheap supply of water brought on the aforesaid auriferous ground. Settlement of the country will readily follow in the train of such prosperous mining communities, as the settler will then find a ready market for his products, and the miner will also reap the j great benefit of a cheaper and better supply than he could otherwise obtain. It will, therefore, I think, be the correct policy of the Council to borrow to the fullest extent of their credit for the construction of the most needed water-races throughout the Province, ai;d it will f nrther be the duty, as well as the interest of constituents who will have the appointing of that Council to return such men only who are both able and willing to grapple with the subject, and carry it to a successful issue. I know there are many who maintain (and very justly) that the primary object of the Government in a new country should be to settle persons on the land, but I hold that such men, however good, admits, like most general rules, of exception, and thai the conduct of the Westland Provincial Council should be an exception to it, because the prosperity ot this Province cannot be secured by an immediate and direct agricultural settlement, but by the development of our mineral resources,' on which development " settlement must and will follow. To carry out agricultural settlement in Westland without the existence of a large mining and consequently consuming population would be to place a few men on the few available spots for cultivation to pine in isolation and poverty, a3 the cost of production and expenses to convey it to the seaboard would preclude them from competing successfully with the outside world, but let the coming Council do their level best to open up a large and lucrative field of labor to the miner and permanent settlement will goon fall into the ranks, and contribute its quota to the general comfort and prosperity of the district. I am, &c, Charles Woolcock. Greymouth, Nov. 10, 1873.