The Westport Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 483, 27 March 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 1869.

When the establishment of the County of Westland North was first suggested as the only available remedial measure against the evils of an alliance with the Nelson Government, it was fully anticipated that the ambition of Greymouth might prove a difficulty, if not an absolute obstacle, in the way of its achievement. It was known, from the past pretences of Greymouth, as well as from the pushing spirit of its people, that it would seek to become the centre of another and a separate county stretching from the Bazorback to the Teremakau. In anticipation of this, the proposers of the resolutions adopted at the meeting which was lately held here to consider the subject of Separation, did what recommended itself to the judgment of most people—they so framed their resolutions that there should be no committal of opinion, in favor of either one or two counties, until the public feeling in the southern part of the district should be as definitely ascertained as it has been in the north. What the precise feeling may be in the south we have yet to learn. There has scarce been time for the Separation Committee to take steps to test how the feeling turns. For this, they have a fair excuse in the parallel proverb that " Borne was not built in a day." Judging, however, from common hearsay, and from "outward and visible signs," such feeling as exists in the south is more of a passive than of an active character, and whether it is in favor of the constitution of the County of Westland North or not, it is at least against the establishment of an intermediate county such as has been indicated, and is still more opposed to the amalgamation of the Grey district with the County of Westland as it is now defined. We, therefore, do not anticipate that, with a fair understanding and appreciation of the designs of the denizens of the district of the Buller, there will be any extreme or insuperable difficulty in eliciting substantial sympathy, not so much from the residents of Greymouth, as from those who are similarly situated to ourselves by being now included in the geography and misgovernment of the Province of Nelson.

At present we refer to the subject chiefly to disabuse the minds of those who may be enly indifferently acquainted with its merits, of an impression which they may readily form from the reading of a recent article in the G-reymouth Press. Our senior contemporary, the Argus, in an article a portion of which we quote in another column, refers to the subject in an apparent spirit of fairness, yet scarcely with such fairness as recommends itself to our senses as being altogether free from objection. Our contemporary, in this article—which does not pretend to be more than a mere cursory and suggestive reference to the subject—assumes, so far as that reference goes, to balance evenly the arguments for and against the two different counties which it is proposed to form ; but, with some ingenuity, and also with some amount of disingenuousness, he gives a decided " cast to the baulk" in favor of the proposal towards which he has confessedly a " leaning." He says, for instance, that " since the Government head-quarters were removed from Cobden to Westport, the Grey district has been literrally robbed of the revenues which ought to have gone towards its improvement and development, and (which have been) expended elsewhere." The impression produced by this statement, if not sought to be conveyed by it, is obviously that the two circumstances—theremoval of the head-quart-ers to Westport, and the expenditure of the Grey revenue " elsewhere " stand to each other in the relation of cause anl effect. Moreover, the impression may and does go this length—that at "Westport has the Grey revenue been expended, and that it has been so expended because Westport has been made the head-quarters of the Provincial Government. Now, no more false impression could be formed or be sought to be conveyed. It is well enough known that there was at first a very large and liberal expenditure in the Grey district—-

that in that district, in fa*t, the revenue of the coast was exhausted——we do not say wrongfully, but certainly to the disadvantage of other districts, and apparently to its own disadvantage now-a-days. Unfortunately for "Westport, it became too late in the day the " head-quarters " of the Government to influence favorably its destinies in the slightest degree. The falsity of the impression is still further aggravated by the fact that "Westport is now no more the " head-quarters " of the Government than is Cobden or, we might say, Timbuctoo. The exceptional glory which, on the most favorable view of the fact, it might have derived from the presence of a Commissioner hath now departed. In every respect the Buller and the Grey Valleys, so far as the present Government is concerned, are on an equality; and in saying even that, we have a suspicion that we are ignoring the feeling, if not the knowledge, that there are at present private reasons for the Curtis Executive being considerably better disposed, for the moment, towards the Grey Valley than towards any other portion of their " dominion." Having said so much on this one point, it is scarcely necessary to notice our contemporary's other statement that the Grey district will not willingly " consent to continue to be governed and neglected from Westport." We shall be charitable enough to suppose that the last word is a misprint for Nelson, from which, it must be well enough known, both the Westport and the Grey districts are governed, and—in this one particular, we must agree with our contemporary —neglected. That the people of the Grey district believe that, with the seat of the County Government at Westport, they would be equally, if at all neglected, is more than our credulity is prepared for. They must know that the interests of the two places are so similar, while their representation would be so equally balanced, that no favor could be done to the one without the jealous oversight of the other ; and, what is mere, that that jealousy would not be a helpless, if bitter, feeling, as it is when directed to the distant and alien Government of kelson, but would be brought into active exercise, and would at once ensure to the district as a whole, in the matter of management and expenditure, " a fair field and no favor."