The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 430, 16 December 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1868.

However numerous aud varied may be the qualifications of the candidates who may offer themselves for election as representatives of the Buller District in the Provincial Council, it is to be hoped that the electors will, at least, insist upon too qualifications as absolutely essential—the possession of some interest in the district, and personal knowledge of the extent and character of its requirements. There was, on the occasion of the last election, and there will probably be again, a display of what, at its very best, may be described as extravagant goodnature, and what, at its worst, may arise from an assumed contempt for local talent, and a fawning feeling towards men of politieal or pecuniary distinction at a distance. We do not say that there will be, but there probably may be, a disposition to invite, from even Nelson itself, some whose names are, by the frequency of their occurrence in the public prints, names to which some prestige of one sort or another is attached. It may even be? that some of these gentlemen themselves, having spied out the " nakedness of the land " in the item of " local talent," may be pei*suaded by the promptings of their own ambition to solicit the suffrages of the electors, and to some extent succeed in their object. "While it may bo confessed that the population of the district does not present a multiplicity of men possessing all the qualifications requisite for the office, we venture to think that even the invitation or the offer of any candidate who is not, by personal residence, identified with the district, should be deprecated, and, if possible, altogether avoided. Admitting that there may be few in the district who have, either by personal preference or practise, acquired oratorical art, or the science of swaying men's minds by the use of good logic, there must be a sufficient .supply of " raw material" capable of being converted into tolerable speakers in such a body as the Nelson Provincial Council, or into members who will, at least, be able to make some use of the inexorable logic of facts.

Considering the financial position of the Province as a whole, it is verv questionable if any absolute good can arise from even the election of a member of this description, or if even the most magnificant array of facts and figures can have any influence whatever in securing to the district its deserts. But when matters hare arrived at their worst, it is then, they say, that there is a possibility of improvement; and ' bad as matters now are with regard to the financial affairs of the Province, it is just possible that, by the institution of a loan or otherwise, the Provincial Executive may have some scheme to submit, by which the credit of the Province and the interests of this district may be retrieved from their present position. In that event there will be peculiarly required in the Council one who will not only conceive it his duty to advocate warmly the interests of the Buller, but who will be able, by information obtained otherwise than from merely secondhand sources, to put his colleagues in possession of facts which will not fail to demand and receive attention. It may be taken for granted that the Government is now sufficiently informed with regard to river protection works, or the necessity of tracks in those districts which have, by the Provincial Secretary, been personally inspected. But there are daily arising other subjects about which few can be informed so well as those who live upon the spot, and who, by association with the business men and miners of the place, can appreciate, or even anticipate, their wants. It is not altogether a new conviction, but it is a conviction which circumstances are daily strengtheming, that in the valleys of the Buller and the Lyell, there are the elements of a magnificent goldfield ; and it is the complaint of every traveller who ventures even to temporarily visit the localities, that it is a gold-field the neglect of which, in the matters of roads and ferries, is really scandalous. And only within the past few days have there been mooted by the Progress Committee two subjects with regard to which motions might be very legitimately tabled during the next session of the Council. We refer to the conservation of the the Municipal Reserves which already exist either ia name or in fact, and the

declaration of other reserves for general and public use. Apparently trifling in themselves, the suggestions which have, before the Progress Committee, been made upon these subjects involve a principle and a practice which, out of all the Provinces of New Zealand, have been most neglected in the Province of Nelson. These subjects we reier to merely en passant, but they are some of a class of subjects which can be best attended to by men whose feelings and knowledge are distinctly local. Were it necessary, scores more might! be quoted to prove the necessity or the propriety of a choice from local men being made. Doubtless the great necessity is to find the man, or the men from whom a choice may be made. The prime advice, in relation to the successful manufacture of hare-soup, is " First catch your hare." And so it is in the adaptation of a live member of the Provincial Council to the purpose for which he is elected. But, limited as the choice may be, we do not despair that time and the event will sufficiently develope the instincts of some of the inhabitants of the district to come forward as candidates ; and, should it prove to be otherwise, the instincts of the constituency should, at least, preserve them from making any selection except from among themselves.