COUNTY SEPARATION, OR WESTLAND NORTH.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 485, 1 April 1869, Page 2

COUNTY SEPARATION, OR WESTLAND NORTH.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times.) Sir,—l have to thank you for the able leader which appeared in your journal of Saturday last, March 27, as also for the article on the same subject which you in that impression excerpt from the Grey Hiver Argus. I can assure you, Sir, we are on the qui vive here on the subject, as you will see from the notice of a public meeting to consider the propriety of agitating for Separation, which meeting will be held in the Theatre Eoyal or Casino de Venise, Princes street here, on an early evening. It seems to me, Sir, that the time has at last arrived when the county system, which has existed so long in England and Scotland, should now be brought into force in the Islands of New Zealand. I refrain from mentioning Ireland, for the cogent reason that I am not so well acquainted with its different provinces, or the way in which they are administered or governed, as I am with England and my native country of Scotland. "Westland is the only county we have in the colony ! Why should we not have a County of "Westland North, or North Westland ?—I prefer the latter name. It will only require united action to bring about the result which is so much to be desiderated. I am tolerably well acquainted with the geography of this Middle Island, and it seems to me to be pointed out by the hand of Nature that the district embraced by the river Mohikinui on the north, and the Grey river on the south, and from the ocean on the west, to the dividing range on the east, should be erected into a county or district, separate and by itself. Were this done we should have "Westport, with its noble river as our chief town, and Mohikinui, Charleston, Brighton, and Cobden — five seaport towns in one county! The Nelson Provincial Council is convened to meet on the 27th proximo, and now is the time to make our voice heard at "Wellington, the seat of Government. The Legislative Assembly and Heuse of Eepresentatives will soon' be in session, and if the inhabitants of the district I have sketched out as the proposed County of North "Westland, take active and energetic action, as well by themselves as through their representatives in the Provincial Council, our success is as certain as was that of the Westland people in obtaining their county disjoined and separated from Canterbury Province. This, Sir, is pre-eminently the age and era of Progress and Reform, and surely we have enough of talent and energy amongst us to govern ourselves locally, without the agency or intervention of " Sleepy Hollow ?" Nelson is the first place I set my foot on in the colony, and I like it much. Its situation, "climate, and people are all that can be desired; but it is simply preposterous and absurd to imagine for a moment that an active, enterprising, and wealthy population, like what we have on the "West Coast, are tamely to submit to be any longer misgoverned by the Nelson magnates! In fact, the interests of the Nelson people, and those on the "West Coast, are diametrically opposed to each other. Let the people of the "West Coast, therefore, take up the matter with a will, and let the townships of "Westport, Charleston, Brighton, and Cobden, make their voices heard, and pull heartily together, and we will be enabled to send to Parliament such a petition for the erection of North "Westland into a county as has never yet emanated from any district or province of New Zealand, or, indeed, been seen in the colony. I trust that you will insert these few hurriedly thrown together remarks in your impression of Ist April current (All Pools' Day, but not for the Sepationists), and that you will also give the movement now on foot the advocacy of your powerful pen.—Tours,

John S. Johnston, Barrister, Solicitor, and Notary Public Camp street, Charleston, March 30.