The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 413, 26 November 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1868.

"Westport is one of the places mentioned as about to he honored by a visit from His Excellency the Governor of the Colony, Sir George Bowen, K. C. B. It would he ungenerous to suppose that the inhabitants of Westport do not feel gratified by that announcement. Loyalty to the British throne has been their characteristic, as much as it has been the characteristic of the concourse of nationalities forming the other mining communities on the West Coast of New Zealand. So much was it their characteristic, i.. times that are now almost forgotten, that, figuratively, it is said to hav, seriously affected the nasal organs of a highly imaginative Government Commissioner. And, apart from mere feelinss of loyalty which the visit ol the Governor might afford them the onportunity of expressing, there are elements in the promised visit of the Governor which should i lduto them to honor both the man and the occasion. The occasion will be the first upon which a Governor will have visited ttie banks of the Buller, celebrated though the river may he for its auriferous wealth and its contributions to therevenue of the Colony. And in the man there are embodied not only distinguished position and authority, but distinction in art, iu letters, and, let us hope that events may soon enable us to add, in war.

It is extremely questionable if tbere are many other particulars in which there are grounds for gratification over this gubernatorial visit. It in only natural and reasonable that there should be excited, on such an occasion, a little local vanity—a desire to give, as well as to receive, gratification. Jt would be natural and reasonable to desire not only to convince our distinguished visitor that the community consists of loyal, peaceful, and amiable individuals, out to exhibit the natural resources of the district which those individuals have adopted as their home, to exhibit the extent to which they have developed those resources, and to exhibit how much their development is due to the fostering care of a pro■vincial form of government, as that form of government is administered iu the province of Nelson. Jt is more than possible that his Excellency may have read Hansard, and, having done so, he may have been delighted with the pleasing picture of contentment, peace, and progress which was very lately drawn by Mr Curtis, as the picture of the condition of the West Nelson Goldfields, aud as the direct consequence of Nelson consideration and —Curtis. It might be some gratification to His Excellency to find, aud still more gratification to the inhabitants to prove, that that picture was a representation of facts, and not a mere sketch of fancy—a pleasing reality, anil no miserable delusion or snare.

In anticipation o'f His Excellency's Tisit, and in view of this as part of its

object, it may bo well to consider how much that is creditable to the district be may be able to see, and how much more he may bo able to see that is disdiscreditablu to tho Government, or discreditable to tho spirit of the inhabitants. Of course, by whatever vessel His Excellency may arrive, when he enters the Buller, he will enter a noble river. But, having entered, where will he land ? One Government jetty is lying prostrate on tho sand-spit—a " sorry spectacle." With regard to tho other, it is a subject for discussion whether it is standing or lying. A compromise may be effected by admitting that it is leaning ; but, even in that attitude, it is leaning outwards, towards mid stream, with an evident design of throwing itself down at His Excellency's feet, or before any greater object, in the shape of a flood, which, in all probability, will visit Westport sooner than His Excellency. No doubt, Stanley Wharf remains, or its remains remain; and there are aristocratic associations with its distinguished name which might induce liis Excellency to overlook the humble reality. But, even lauding there, how is His Excellency to reach the town, so that he may receive, along the line of approach, theovationsof the people, and his first impressions of the place? The Esplanade exists in name, but not in tact. In fact, iu name it may not long exist. Shall he come by the route of Herbert street and Freeman street, to he affronted by prominently painted buildings of suspicious interior, or by Molesworth street, to be confronted by the beggarly array of shanties which dispute the possession of the street with academicians, auctioneers, and architects ? It might be preferable that he should t"o neither, but that, landing where the upper wharf once stood, he should be able to witness what might have been the finest river frontage tor business places on the West Coast, were it not that, for lack or artificial protection, it is now being carried out to the Atlantic Ocean at the ratfi of tons. He would have the further advantage) of ascertaining how the pioneers of settlement in Westport are content, or compelled, to live in swamp, because a paternal Government begrudge the outlay for a few cartloads of gravel, or because public men are slow to perceive the advantages of municipal institutions. But, supposing he should reach the civic centre, by whom is he to be received, and where ? The locality is not such a matter of difficulty, for there is a Court House, in all conscience sufficiently free of encumbrances, in the shape of seats, to admit of a levee beiui; 'eld; and, • fortunately, there is a M .sonic Hall, affording, because it is not a Government work, ample accommodation for its purpose —a public banquet. His host, his friend, and guide, in the name of the citizens-, would be the Mayor, had we got one, but, not having got one, there will ie left to the Progress and Hospital (!) Committees a rare opportunity of distinguishing themselves. The Masons and the Odd-Fellows will do so—as a matter of course. Should he seek for the public buildings, he will find—in the centre of the towu and in the principal street the jail. He will find that the harbor office—has been washed away. He will find that, if there is no church, there is, at any rate, a parsonage. And he will find that, in one particular, the Nelson Government is, at least, paternal, by erecting comfortable houses for some, if not all, of their officials.

In the event of His Excellency desiring to visit the diggings, as he naturally will, he will learn that Giles and other terraces, richly auriferous, exist within sight of the town, but that they are not readily approachable, for want of a track. He will find that, even to reach them, regardless of tracks, he must—unless he claims the Queen's license—pay toll on a bridge not a mile out of town, erected by private speculation, and not by the Government, and that he must pay other tolls further on, for no advantage that anyone but the Government and the toll-taker are aware of. Should he desire to visit the Buller valley, where the nuggets of New Zealand have been found, he must subdue his desire in deference to the fact that there are no roads there either. And so on ad infinitum. « In fact, His Excellency will discover, either by positive or ! negative evidence, that a mining community in Nelson is a community whose work, w r hose expenditure, and whose enterprise are in the proportion of ten to one, compared with the attention it receives from the Government. He will find, in many more instances than in those that we hurriedly quote, that Mr Curtis's picture is a fancy one, the " tone " and color of which are due to bye-gone representations of the Westland newspapers, who found everything that was bad in Canterbury, because they had

Canterbury to deal with, and everything that was good in Nelson, because tliey had little knowledge or care of what Nelson did. And he will find that even if Nelson did much a,t first, it is doing nothing now, and that, in spite of their reverential feeling towards Provincial forms of Government—in spite of the distrust which people have of a too hastily adopted County System—people are beginning to think and to talk of ihe propriety and probability of the West Coast being separated from Nelson long before the occasion of another Governor's visit.

But, whatever His Excellency may find, let us hope that he will find, in Westport, a warm and hospitable welcome, befitting the distinguished position he occupies,- and becoming the position which the community is fairly entitled to assume.