The Westport Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 486, 3 April 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1869.

Circumstances, we are told, alter cases. How very materially they do so, in connection with some of the most important interests and resources of the West Coast, is easily illustrated. Let us take as an instance the development of the Mount Bochfort coalfield—par excellence, the coalfield of the colony. Let us suppose that, in the dispensations of Nature, the Mount Bochfort coalfield had been situated within ten miles of Hokitika, instead of being, as it is, within the same distance of Westport. AVould it, under such circumstances, be now standing as an absolute " mountain of coal," to be gazed at in the same listless way that people gaze at the aurora Australis or the man in the moon ? Would it, at this time of day, continue to appear only as a black-painted patch on the Provincial map of the " waste lands "of the Crown ? Would it not rather—would it not certainly—be an object of earnest and active interest on the part of the Westland Government ? Would it not be an object of equal interest to those who, in the language of advertisements, are described as "capitalists, speculators,and others?" Would there not be, on both sides, or on all sides, such interest and energy displayed in connection with thu question of developing such a coalfield that, even despite its disadvantages, Hokitika would now be an extensive coal-exporting port ? Our impression is that, were such the circumstances, such would be the case.

Let us suppose even that, in the dispensations of Nature, the Mount Eochfort coalfield had heen situated within ten miles of the town of Nelson. Would it, even under such circumstances, be simply gazed at with sleepy interest by the inhabitants of that unhealthy hollow ? "Would the members of their Provincial Council adjourn from session to session, doing no more than they now do for such a valuable section of the Provincial estate ? Would the Executive which has designed docks, and devised magnificent schemes of railway communication, be content to exist without immortalising itself by opening such a field of labor, and without for ever associating, in pleasing alliteration, the name of Curtis with coal? Would not the attention of " capitalists, speculators, and others " be invited by every form of advertisement, and by the offer of every possible facility for the realisation of their fortunes, and the fortune and fame of Nelson ? Inevitably—and very reasonably—such a materially altered state of circumstances as that which we have supposed would most materially " alter the case." It is becoming a fashion in Westport, and (in the expressive idiom of a not altogether dead language) rather a " fashious " fashion, to rail persistently against the Nelson Government, and to attribute to them what may be nothing more than the simple consequences of social sluggishness. This being the fashion, it would be but fair, in the spirit of giving even the devil his due, to give to the Government the credit for what they might be doing in this matter, and to attribute to this soeul sluggishness so much of the blame as it might be entitled to bear. But the Government, from all we can learn, are doing nothing—nothing to bring a good marketable article—a substantial estate—constantly and persistently under public notice as they should do, and as the custodians of that estate; and the Government are really more to blame than are the people resident here, who, hewever creditable may be their position as u speculators," are not yet character-

ised as a community by the presence in their midst of an excessive number of capitalists. The simple desideratum seems to he to have the coalfield, its contiguity to the best river harbor in the country, the lately and vastly increased facilities for the formation and use of the necessarytramway, and its score of other characteristics as a speculative field for capital, brought under public notice, both in the colonies and at Home. Within the past year, the whole complexion of the speculation of opening such a coalfield has materially changed, and changed for the better, by the discovery of auriferous ground along the whole line of requisite railway, and there are other considerations which should induce the Government, and even the people of the district, to promote, by every possible means, the project of working this magnificent coalfield, and of making Westport what it is sooner or later destined to be—the Newcastle of New Zealand.