WELLINGTON.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2031, 8 July 1875, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

Wednesday. Thames Kepresentation. The New, Zealand Times, in a leader this morning, says :-r-''The people of the Thames Goldfield seem to be making out a very fair case for themselves. It is Hndoubtedly a fact that a community.of 13,000 soulsv with an electoral roll con? taming; 3000 ; names, / hasT something to complain of so far as representation is 'concerned. This is more especially the case when we consider that the Thames Goldfield has been for many a' year the mainstay and backbone of the Auckland Province, and has furnished but one out of eighteen representatives from that Province.' It must be remembered, too, that the population of the Thames, though it has had" sudden seasons of increase and; decrease, is not like the population of an alluvial goldfield, which in time is apt to dwindle into nothingness. On the contrary, even in the present admittedly dull times, it gives support to a population—concentrated for the most part within a sufficiently small circle—of quite as great numerical importance as those of some half-a-dozen other electoral districts rolled' into one. Even should there be no new Caledonians come upon at Grahamstowri, .this importance is not likely to decrease. The mines are now giving, and will' for many years give , remunerative returns and support a fixed population. But, beyond this, the natural position of the Goldfields townships, at the head of a great estuary and embouchure of a great river, make them of importance even, if not another ounce of gold came from the reefs, and make j them entrepots for a country, rich in ' far- more permanent resources than those of goldbearing quartz. TheThames constituency has shown itself to bo an enlightened and, progressive one. Even before the country : districts of Auckland awoke to; the > fact that they formed apart rather of a colony than of a province, the, Thames... people showed a disposition to thro^w off the shackles imposed by mere paltry local considerations, ! and to appeal as colonists/to the Colony for justice they thought denied them. As people -anxious to::;be: in the ran ofprogress, the Thames people too have; not been idle. They,have shown no small * care for secular and religious education, j v Their..various. public-institutions are in 1 more thah^ereditable^ condition.:' Then they organised^ the first-really useful industfiiilJexEibiJfcisc>n mi the^ro.vince, and they have made for themselres frequent opportunities for-obtaining lessons in the arts and sciences and-manufactures. Unfortunately, as forming-aniitemamongst Auckland interests, they have not obtained ■a. repfesentatiTeispb'sition ihs^the'country which they are entitled to, but the re-adju^tnientof'-the ■representation whichls inevitable, will procure that position for -them;'' I'"^ ; -:''"W-'-rV-: .:,:■;; ■■-:„;- ,'.,