COUNTY SEPARATION.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 451, 12 January 1869, Page 3

COUNTY SEPARATION.

{To the Editor of the Westport Times.) Sir,-It is with pleasure I see that some few are not so idiotically indifferent to the political interests"of this district as the majority seem to be, for it is almost time we began to make a move in the matter of reform, or leave the coast to the angry elements, in disgust with the powers that be. New Zealand may critically be compared to a young fruit-tree with its roots struck down through the soil into the sterile clay, unable to get sustenance enough to cover it with leaves to protect it from the weather, without a sign of fruit to assist poor humanity through the world, and every Province may be compared to a fruitless branch that dwarfs and encumbers all it overshadows. In such a position are the people of Northland, and it requires neither much wisdom nor commonsense to say that it can never afford to send something like £IOO,OOO to be spent almost entirely on other parts of

t the colony, and then pay its just debts. , Under the mis-rule we are subject to, we can never do it, and pay also toll over every river and landing goods at every wharf (which will soon be the case). We cannot be content without roads, or, at the best, with bridle tracks, that are too> narrow and crooked for long-backed horses to travel on 5 content to have to run to town after all applications and permissions, when a Warden for about £SOO per year would prevent, on the I average, twenty men from having daily to travel a distance of 12 or 14 miles; content with a code of by-laws that cannot be administered with justice and equity; content with all manner of abuses that would cause the inI solvency of any community but that of persevering Britons. Sir, I believe the only constitutional remedy is to boldly go in for Separation, dissolve partnership with Messrs Curtis, (Treenfield, and Co., and try to develope the resources of the district, which never can be done with such partners. It is only by practical experience that County Councils can become perfect specimens of machinery for local government, and by securing one we shall not only have half our revenue spent in the district, but increase our powers to have the roots of the tree attended to. Sir, I consider the miners very much to blame for not taking a more lively interest in questions which more immediately affect themselves. It could cost them no more per year than the price of an hour's spree", and the benefit would be incalculable. —I am, &c, A Citizen.