COUNTY SEPARATION.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 459, 30 January 1869, Page 2

COUNTY SEPARATION.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times.) Sir, —It is now time that some more attention was paid to the interests of the large population collected in this part of the province, if there is to be any permanent good to result from the discoveries made. It is difficult to understand by what strange fatality our rulers are so blind as not to make some provision whereby a considerable amount of the money earned 4fc our midst should not be invested in some way so as to benefit the district in the future. Our present available resource has been sufficient of itself to attract a large population, without those usual inducements held out in other parts of New Zealand, 1 such as free passages, grants of rural lands, and town lots. We yield largo reveuues, and consume much of the produce of neighboring provinces. "We enhance the value of property and other investments everywhere but among ourselves. There is an unsettledness W our plans, because we are insecure in our undertakings, and our future is a blank. We are placed in a most anomalous position—a portion of a province unencumbered with debt, contributing the largest amount to the exchequer, yet getting nothing done to keep our present footing secure, or anything for .the further development of that which is the means of raising this money, except what is done by private means, not to mention what ought to be accomplished in the way of developing what are to be the permanent resources of the district. What may be'eal.ed Nelson [proper is a hidebound portion of the Middle Island, and, by itself, it can never grow to anything great. Its only chance of acquiring a position would be to maintain unbroken the link which but feebly attaches it at present to the gold-producing portion, and, being the natural port of the coast, it ought to seek to maintain and extend its commercial connection with us by sea, and by liberal measures ; and not by weakening itself by any dock, railway, or other Utopian schemes. Canterbury and Westland ought to be a warning to us, and, profiting by that, to take a stand before some ruinous undertaking is perpetrated upon us, not allowing a portion of our annual revenue to be appropriated, (sufficient to make all the roads wo want,) for the aggrandisement of strangers. From the ignorance manifested as to our present wants, and the little practical interest taken on our account, it is quite probable that our revenues will be absorbed and spent in an unproductive manner so long as they last, and the Buller for the second time will be allowed to return to its , original solitude. It is to be regretted that it has been necessary to initiate a movement for separation; but when it i is considered that the existence of the present community here greatly depends on the judicious management i of its revenue at the outset, and as it , would be too late to take the matter up when the tide of population begins to ■ ebb, 'we cannot be too soon in having \ our affairs entrusted to those who have a local knowledge, interest, and experience. Wo ought to know by ; this time that our safety depends on . being; self-reliant, and that the policy of Nelson freely rendered is simply ; this—" Give tho goldfields nothing hut what they pay for, and as little of that as i possible, subject to the usual comi mission and charges." ( Long have we continued in i leading strings, confident that we . would be cared for in a manner \ becoming the parental reputation our guardians for some time en- . joyed. and discon- [ tent are the results. Nelson people i console themselves with philanthropic , egotism, telling each other that it . would not be safe for such as us, with . our nomadic predilections, to have the . spending of our own money. Oh, no! , When the Superintendent, as the . public mouthpiece gave utterance to I those disinterested sentiments, it is not reported that he winked, but, looking ; at the affair in a Westport point of , view, one is apt to think he must have done so. The securing a number of , town sections, doing a bit of land job- ? bing, and drawing ground rents, seem , to be the acme of our friends' ambition in one direction. Few of them have put their shoulder to the work of establishing a settlement here, and . whatever valuo attaches to these thiniis, the nomads are to thank for it. The , unsettled settlers in Westport, with their 14 and 20 years leases, must re- , fleet a little, and exert themselves, if , they intend holding their own' with the canny folk in the north. Yours &c, E. W. Westport.