THE "PRESS" UPON THE "WEST COAST TIMES."

West Coast Times, Issue 285, 22 August 1866, Page 3

THE " PRESS" UPON THE "WEST COAST TIMES."

„(^Ko^t tMb &rc£ss, Xxx^ttsi: 14.) The leading Wesidand journals are girding up their loins for the desperate campaign they, expect , to enter upon jyhen the new Provincial Council commences, its aessioii. The '.' West Coast Tunes," in its efforts to stir Up a political spirit of fervor, alien to its own, among the gold-digging and mercantile eojnmunity of Hokitika, reminds us of %\e jdescrjptiou given in- Rob Roy of the bver active, JSjbnlou&, and intensely Protestant lawyer's clerk, attached to the lazy, bon vivant, Jacobite magistrate, striving incessantly, but all in vain, to force the slow step of justice to quicken its pace, and scandalised to the last degree by the indifference of his principal to the sight of violated law, and tis readiness to throw the warrant behind the fere, and dismiss a prisoner with his case unheard, ,if he could J-eiurii an hour the, earlier to more genial occupations. So the " West Coast Times" has always exerted its utmost energies to rouse its readers to a proper $*nse of their political rigjhts and wrongs, though scarcely meeting with the success such strenuous exertions deserved. It was the first to raise, and the last to give over the cry of separa- j tion, but tbe apathy of the public was : too much for its strength, and after i tnafty indignant remonstrances, it had the mortification of being obliged formally to announce its , abandonment of that cherished project. Some months afterwards Mr Moorhouse came into office, and as he is well known on the West Coast, and by his visits in the twpfold. capacity of representative and ijiperintenflent' has given earliest of a habit of personal inspection of affairs that was wanting in the previous regime, expectations began to brighten and the Hqlqlika paper** — e ye n , * ne , " West pokst. Times, Ivhicb. Of refuses to believe that any good tiling can come out of Christchureb. — indulged in vague but alluring hints of a dawning era of unexampled prosperity. Whether these hopes will ever be realised remains to be seen, but tliere are signs that the favorable change will not be So great as tlie Westlahd people fondly imagine, f&eatitime; as we sai,a, the .papers are looking forward to the. session of the Council, and by way, we suppose, of preparatory training for the. approaching ccmteistj.JikYe been hating a., round or two with the # " Lyttelton Times." The subject in dispute is of course financial — the amount of revenue derived from and expenditure on behalf of the West, Coast. Our Eastern contemporary* .^tmotjifg. from? the , Provincial Treasurer' 3 accounts, shows that - the expenditure has been in excess of the income to an extent which leaves Westland indebted to Christchurch to nearly Ll 00,000. A Westland champion retorts, that figures can be made to prove Anything, and gives ,a specimen of the a,i;L by >. proving to his own satisfaction frbin the same accounts thai Wetland, so far from being too favorably dealt with, has enjoyed considerably less than its fair share of expenditure. The truth, as usual, probably lies between the two extremes. Mr Grosser last session admitted that the "tfest Cpast revenue had been -.spent within tbe district* blit) hfe addetlj iibt for such'purposes as the inhabitants desired. This is very likely to have been the ca.se ; but a simple- remedy is at fiaiitl iii a change in the iriode of administration, by increasing the power of the representative of Government at Hokitika, and by the institution of municipalities, road boards, and such like, leaving the direction of tbe expenditure bit pjabiic tyorks to a .considerably extent in the hand§ of the people themselves. We,, have long since advocated measures ,pf .this Tpn&£ ,and such," jvc believe; are the Intentions of tbe present Government. But we must warn our Westland friends that the economy so sedulously preached On tlie one .side of the; province must iiot, be . forgotten on tne,otheiv .The {jvoYin&e i$ Hot in a position 16 Ma'ch out into heavy expenses, even for objects which in more favorable times would more than justify the outlay. If Westland has its own revenue spent within the district on such works as the special interests of the country require, that is as much as it has any right to demand, and it must not expect td nave its oSvn resdurces supplemented by' contributions from the eastern half of the province. Mr Moorhouse has already pledged himself and his Executive that the revenues, whatever they may be, shall be so expended, and with the execution of that promise Westland should rest content.

Writing from the Buller under date August J i4th, the " Grrej Eiter Argu3 " correspondent Bays — » Since the date of my last letter tliere has been very little doing here, owing to the heavy fall of rain, the river being so high that boats could neither get up nor down ; but today the weather has changed for the better, and I have no doubt things -will improve. In mining matters there is nothing new in this place, there being only a few people scattered along the beach making small wage 3; but some are sanguine that good ground will be opened on the terraces further back, as they yery much resemble the terraces south of the Grey. A few parties hare been at work in 'the Mohikinui River ; but, with the exception of Jones 1 party, they have not been very fortunate. It being a rough river, it is hard for them to get up their provisions. As regards the town of Westport, there is a slight improrement with reepect to buildings, amongst these there are two hotels, one being built by Porter, which, when finished, will be a first-class house ; two bakers' ovens have also been built this week, Binding three in all— plenty for the sjze 9f thp fW, Tl>9 #enn(JfJy f from NeJaon,

arrived hero two days ago, being stormstayed. Among her passengers ia Mr Mackay, Native Commissioner, who has kept a few of the land-jobbers Way among fh'e sections'; as the most eligible ya'rfc for* the iown i$ thi Native Eeserve, so the Maoris will again benefit by the prosperity of the goldfields. There are some fow hints I wish to throw out, but I will do so in my next. One I may mention* Here isj tliafc grdat illco'tlv^nience is felt here for the want of a Sank. I tnirik tiny of them would do well to have a branch here, as there is no cash sometimes to be had to buy gold, having to issue lOU's, which doos not answer well. t i ,• • ' tfbe " Wellliigtoii idvertiieT " sfa'teS :— ",'From the answer given by Mr Stafford td Mr A. J. Eiehmond in the House of Representatives, yesterday, we learn that the monument erected to the unfortunate men who fell at the Wairau masaaore has a number of wrong nanles cut upon its tablet. Such a piece of arrant stupidity as this on the part of somebody, seldom comes under our notice, and Mr Stafford' sale! {hat the names were known to be wroUg before the tablet was" put up. Now it turn» out that there is not money sufficient to take fhis tablet, down and erect a fresh one, so that the chronicle of (hat fearful event will have to' go ddwn td posterity falsely stated." I Writing upon the new rush to Omoero iCreek, the " Westland Observer," of the 18th finst., says :—": — " {Satisfactory accounts continue to be received of the prospects of the digging parties who have lately betaken themselves to Ithe Omoero Creek, a short distance to the (southward of the Waihb. Cameron's party, iwho are most advanced* eodtinde,' as they proegress in stripping the ground, to get a nice 'sample of coarse gold, and it is expected that, ■when they strike the reef, and commence ■sluicing, the ground will be found to pay • handsomely; About- seventy men are now at i work in the oreek ; others are going up ; and *in"a few weeks it is confidently expected that 'the majority will be at work, with very favorjable results." The " &jrey Hive? Xfg#V' t of tie 18th inst. states : — " The latest intelligence irom me ifeto Eiver Eush is to the effect that a considerable number of men have within the lastfew days left for other localities, wearied of waiting longer for a "slant." Of course this is a natural consequence of the over-population of the place, and must not be accepted as a sign of want of faith' in the prospects' of tile diggings. At tlie satlie time we are bbiind to' fioy that the new diggings do not present a very attractive field, io, superficial miners. The sinking is difficult and costly ; .in fact, 1 only a few of tlie parties now working cait afford to incur the cost necessary to a thorough testing of the ground. The water is a great drawback to the miners, necessitating constant work to keep it down, and enable the shafts to be bottomed. Still there is no reason to doubt the richness of the diggings. Those tinners who have, the means' and appliances of working systematically x»UI all earn good returns j but there are many who will probably not be able of themselves to surmount the obstacles that have to be overcome. We understand that a scheme of amalgamation has been mooted, and is likely to be carried out, as presenting the best means of tttfning the ground €6 proGtaTJle account."