The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, September 3, 1864.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 141, 3 September 1864, Page 2

The Lake Wakatip Mail. Queenstown, Saturday, September 3, 1864.

The Queenstown Improvement Committee are, we notice, still alive. We know nothing of the organisation of this body, beyond the fact that they were elected by ballot on the 2nd October, 1863, and that their term of office was for a period of six months. Our columns have contained, from time to time, an account of their proceedings. The Committee, on the whole, have proved a serviceable and useful institution. All new bodies fall into mistakes, and that the Queenstown Improvement Committee should have fallen into some mistakes is not, therefore, an unnatural sequence. We are glad to notice a desire to rectify mistakes, and the action the Committee has taken in reference to the Land question and the subject of a road to the West Coast shows they are, at least, again entitled to command respect, though they may not correctly, in a certain sense, represent the inhabitants of Queenstown at the present moment. This Committee exists in two states—one is a desire to promote the general weal of the town, and the other stepping beyond this to that of the district at large. In both these capacities they have been successful, and as very few objections have been made against them it will, of course, be generally conceded that they have done their duty and been, in default of a fresh election, supported by the inhabitants almost universally in the views and opinions enunciated. For the purpose of our remarks, we ace.pt the decision of the Committee as binding upon the constituents who severally elected them. The Governor, Sir George Grey, would recognise them as a representative body, and his Honor the Superintendent does so, the offices of Chief Secretary, the Treasury, Roads, Lands, Mining, and several other departments accept the dictum of the Queenstown Improvement Committee. We do not think they do so unadvisedly, but we think the board might advantageously be remodelled, introducing municipal powers. We do not know the conditions of the proposed Ordinance, nor at the present time is it to our purpose. We have shown that the Committee in their recent resolutions must be considered to represent the district, and we therefore award them praise for passing such a resolution as the following one : That the Government be respectfully requested to survey the passes between Lake Wakatip and the West Coast, with the intention of opening up an available route with the ascertained auriferous country in that direction ; and that the survey would be of great value, in the opinion of this Committee, to Otago, by opening up an auriferous country within the boundaries of the Province.

The necessity of a change of policy in the mode of meeting this powerful and rapidly growing district must be patent to all. From the first period of the establishment of the Wakatip goldfield the West Coast has been a terra incognito, comparatively speaking. Attention has, however, always tended that way, and though the progress has been slow we know to-day how sure and correct it has been. No part of the Wakatip district can show more industry and consolidation than the Head of the Lake does. The resolution of the Committee is therefore not an empty affair, but based upon a lengthened trial of that trend of the country, and passed after mature consideration. If the Committee are able to retain office and enjoy so much confidence as we have shown in the fact that a new election is not demanded by the public, we must deem this especial resolution one of considerable importance. The country they desire to open out is upwards of two hundred miles from the Grey river, or the seat of what has been lately known as the West Coast rush. Many have gone in that direction, but the West Coast the Committee desire to assist in developing is that portion between Milford Sound and Jackson's Bay. Should the Government accept the suggestion conveyed to them it will prove a step in the right direction, and condoue for a portion of past neglect and indifference That »hey are justified in doing more than this we strongly assert, and time will prove the truth of our assertion. We would support the action of the Committee in this respect, and firmly believe that in prominently placing this matter before the Government they are essentially advancing not only the interests of the Wakatip, but also those of the Province at large. Let all questions of doubt be set at rest in this direction, so far as they can be, about the mineral country of Dr Hector and other explorers, for this is a result that the depart-

ments should be able easily to arrive at. It must be more beneficial, one would think, to keep the population within the boundaries of Otago, than to drive them by way of Lake Wanaka into Canterbury. Surely the people of Dunedin know the respective difference and value of thess two routes, and we look for them to second the exertkns of the Queenstown Improvement Committee, not to establish a rival, but to aid a sister town. With the route properly defined to the West Coast the Wakatip must ever remain a valuable appendage to Otago—driven to separation into a new Province by neglect, no one will feel regret for a Province like Otago, that would continually pursue a suicidal policy. Attention is so strongly drawn in this direction that what the Committee seek must sooner or later be carried out, and it would be better to do it now, with a good grace, than for the selfish sake of protection hereafter. The former will be accepted as a recognition well-timed, the latter will be treated in the manner it deserves. With minerals, gold, an increasing population in this direction, added to what, from all we can learn, is a magnificent stretch of country, we cordially support this judicious motion of the Committee.