WESTPORT ELECTION.

Westport Times, Volume 1, Issue 139, 10 January 1868, Page 3

WESTPORT ELECTION.

(To the Editor of the West-port Times and Charleston Argus.) S IU —" The clay of election draweth nigh." These words, few in number, yet of vast significance, seem in this apathetic place to rouse no latent spark of interest in the minds of its inhabitants. You hear repeatedly the question, " Who is to be our member?" but at present the " coming man" is not even foreshadowed. Of course, I mean the local man ; for Mr M'Lean, though a holder of property in the Buller, is a non-resident, and can scarcely be an fait to the wants and requirements of our infantile state. "We are now suffering from the indifference and ignorance of the first member for Westport, who was virtually elected by two or three people, and it is time, if we are not to have a repetition of such folly, for the Buller people to bestir themselves, and taking into consideration the opening words of this epistle, see how it affects their present interests and the future prosperity of their rising town. Governed at a distance, with the powers- so liberally bestowed by the former Superintendent on our Commissioner—much curtailed as they have been by the present oneit behoves us in an eminent degree to send as our representative a man of local knowledge,—one whose interest and whose livelihood are identified with our own,—one whose sound common sense, rather than his verbose oratory, shall be his recommendation, — one with sufficient mind and education to grasp at the ultimate bearing of each measure on the district and province, and with moral -courage to vote as seems best to him for the people who give him their confidence, and oy their confidence give him this power, — one who shall be neither a truckler for place, nor a truckler for the good-will of his constituents at the expense of Ida own self-esteem. That such men

are to be found there is no doubt, and let us hope that they may be induced to come into the arena quickly. Political experience and political creed in the embryo state of the town and province are mere bugbears, and should not deter any one from coming forward.

The vast amount of funds annually placed at the disposal of the Nelson Government by the mining works in this neighborhood make it essential that we should have a voice in its distribution —essential that we should get a fair share for local purposes ; and though not opposing its equal apportionment to the other districts of the province, restrain its disposal in any way that may be inimical to our interests or the general interests of the province. Yeu want a worker more than a talker —a thinker more than an orator; and any man, whatever his position, who possesses these qualifications, is certain, if he has the confidence of the electors, to gain his seat by an overwhelming majority over any other than a local man. Let us hope that there is such a man, and that the electors will secure his services befere it is too late, and before, as in the last election, we have only Hobson's choice. Elkctoe.