TIMARU AND WESTLAND.

West Coast Times, Issue 593, 19 August 1867, Page 3

TIMARU AND WESTLAND.

(feoji the pbess.)

The first fruits of the rejection of the Local Government Act appear to-day in a telegram we have received from Timaru, announcing the revival of the cry for the separation of the district from the rest of Canterbury. The telegram informs us that the news of the defeat of the Bill caused great excitement in the town, and that a public meeting was to be held last night to petition the General Assembly for separation from Canterbury. There is no chance of the petition being granted, opposed as it would be by the great majority, if not the whole, of' the Canterbury members, and by the great bulk of the Provincialists, who would be decidedly averse to setting a precedent that might hereafter be carried to an inconveniet extent. Every province has some district discontented with the provincial rule, and desirous of starting in life for itself, and if the practice of separation were once allowed to begin there is no knowing where it would stop. Every province therefore would help to preserve the integrity of Canterbury, if from no other motive, from a fear lest itself should be the next to undergo dismemberment.

Besides, Timaru does not satisfy the conditions under Avhich alone a new province could be created. It is not naturally a separate province. It is not, like the West Coast, divided from the rest of Canterbury either by geographical position or by difference of social and commercial interests. The West Coast is really a separate province, and would undoubtedly be made so were the boundaries of the provinces now to be arranged for the first time. It is cvt 1 off from Canterbury by a mountain range, communication across which, always tedious and difficult, is liable at times to be stopped altogether ; it draws no supplies from Christchurch, but has its own ports, and carries on a perfectly independent trade with Melbourne ; it has no interest in common with Canterbury, is in no way commercially connected with it, and, if the eastern half of the^province were to be totally ruined, would not be affected in the least. If, therefore, the West Coast demands to be constituted a distinct province, it is plainly in accordance with the whole theory of provincial institutions that the

demand should be complied with. But Timaru is in a very different position. It is too integral a part of Canterbury, too thoroughly identified with it in pursuits and interests, and too little provided with the requirements for starting on an independent career — a port, a capital, and a large population, to be summarily cut off; and its petition for separation will be opposed not only by those members of the House who have reason to fear for the consequences to their own province, but by all who wish to maintain the provincial system intact.

Timaru therefore, and all other outlying districts, must bear their hard fate for at least another twelvemonth, and submit themselves with what resignation they may to the tender mercies of the triumphant Provincial Governments The result is much to be regretted, and induces us to wish that the General Government had either drawn their Bill with more caution or persisted in it with more resolution, so as to have escaped being defeated on a question of whether or not powers of local government were to be committed to the country districts. The Local Government Bill was no ordinary measure, and had been expected with no ordinary interest. Its advent had been heralded by an express announcement in the Governor's speech at the close of last session, and it had been looked for with the utmost eagerness by the outlying districts of every province as the means of relief at once and for ever from the injustice against which they had so long remonstrated in vain. We fear that the news of its absolute rejection will excite a corresponding degree of discontent and indignation. Such at least seems to be the case with Timaru. The people of Timaru know to well what they have to expect from the Provincial Government. They remember how promises made to them session after session have been broken with the same careless facility with which they were made, and they have evidently given up all hope of the possibility of improvement or that any good can come out of Christchurch. It will be for the Provincial Government by its heedful attention for the future to the requirements of every part of the province to dispel these gloomy anticipations, but we confess to thinking that they are only too well founded. The events of the present session of the Assembly, witl^the repeated victories of the Provincial party, are not the most likely means to effect any change in the centralising policy which^ Provincial administrations j seem instinctively to adopt. Yet it is no trivial matter that a large section of the people should be living in a state of permanent dissatisfaction with the existing form of government, and will lead some day to consequences which the Provincialists in the hour of their" triumph little expect.