THE COUNTY OF WESTLAND NORTH.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 486, 3 April 1869, Page 3

THE COUNTY OF WESTLAND NORTH.

(From the Grey River Argus.*) The question of the establishment of the new County of Westland North continues to occupy a good deal of the attention of our northern contemporary the Westport Times, and the discussion as to whether the proposed southern boundary line should be Razorback or the G-rey Elver, is, not unnaturally, the vexed question. We have so frequently referred to this matter, and pointed out the advantages which would be derived by the residents of the Grey District were it incorporated in one County, that there is no mistaking our opinion. It must have been known and fully understood both by our contemporary and the principal movers in the agitation for Separation from Nelson, and that this so is observable from the remarks <rf our contemporary, in a recent issue.

This previous knowledge ought to have deterred our contemporary from accusing us of striving to raise feelings of jealousy, and throwing " absolute obstacles in the way of the achievement of the Separation of Westland North jfrom the Nelson Province. We have no wish to enter upon a discussion of the merits., of the question at the present time. We simply notice it to remind our contemporary that for the last three years we have consistently advocated the incorporation of the whole A'alley of the Grey under one Government—whether that form of Government were Provincial or County—and there is no room now for our Westport friends to Say, that in raising our voice in the discussion of this question, we are doing so for the purpose of hindering their prosperity. The very opposite is the case; we sympathise heartily with them in their movement, but for all that we,cannot abandon a line of policy, founded as it is upon a thorough belief that what we have so long advocated is the only practical means by which the .permanent prosperity of the Grey Valley will be secured. As we have said, we have no intention of being forced into a premature discussion, as very little, if any, good could result from it at the present time. We have to repeat what we said only the other day, that we wait with confidence until the agitators from Nelson shall have fairly tested the public opinion of the Grev District on the question. They are in duty bound to do so, as they as well as our contemporary have very frequently asserted that the feeling of the residents in the Grey district was more in favor of being incorporated in the new County of Westland North, than added to Westland, or formed into a new County extending from the Teremakau to Eazorback. When they have proved their statements, and shown that this district can be more easily and equitably governed from Westport than from Greymouth, We will admit that their demands were just. At present the onus of proof lies with them, and we hope, instead of carrying on idle discussion as to vague probabilities, to see steps taken by the Separation Committee on an early day to put the question to the test of public opinion.