The Westport Times. TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 508, 25 May 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1869.

One of the strongest arguments which could by possibility be adduced to pi'ove the utter unfitness of the Provincial Council of Nelson to administer the South-West Goldfields is the proposition to reduce the salaries of the Eesident Magistrates aud Wardens. Such a proposition can only have proceeded from downright ignorance of the duties of the offices in question, or from a desire to help, most effectually, the cause of Separation, which from the first we have most strenuously supported.

It is scarcely necessary to refer to the duties performed by the Resident Magistrates and "Wardens to demonstrate the utter unfairness of the proposed reductions. We need only point out the circumstances under which they received their appointments, and how they have adapted themselves to the changes which have since occurred, and how they have discharged the duties imposed upon them by those chauges. "When the Eesident Magistrates and Wardens, at least of Westport and Charleston and Brighton, were appointed, Mr Kynnersley was Commissioner. He was charged with the general administration of the Government, so far as the Goldfields of Nelson were concerned. Upon him devolved the responsibility of carrying out the policy of the Nelson Executive, the recommendation of public works, and the expenditure of public money. With Mr Kynnersley's resignation, and the determination of the Nelson Executive to dispense with the office of Commissioner, a saving of £7OO per annum was effected. But with that saving the work which Mr Kynnersley performed, and a very great deal of the responsibility he assumed, were thrust upon the several Resident Magistrates and Wardens. Under these circumstances it is now proposed, and, as we are told, with prospects of success, to reduce the salaries of those officers. We fear that before our protest against such a gross injustice can reach Nelson, the question will have been discussed and settled. But we cannot refrain any the less from recording our unqualified dissent from so impolitic and so unjust a species of retrenchment.

The amount economised is ridiculously small, and might justify comment. We prefer, however, to meet the subject as a matter of principle and not one of amount.

Eegarding the question then as a matter of general principle we con-

tend that the proposed reduction shows a complete disregard for the requirements of these districts ; that it suggests and will naturally lead to the notion that any man—no matter how inferior his abilities, how limited his judgment, or how weak his personal charatter—will do for a Resident Magistrate and Warden for the Nelson South-west Goldlields. This, of course, is not the way in which the motion is proposed. No doubt the mover would recoil from the inference we deduce from his action. But, nevertheless, we regard it as the only true and reasonable deduction of which his proposal is capable. We have had some experience in our time of Wardens and Magistrates who have been foisted upon Goldfields, on what is vulgarly termed " the cheap." And we have lively recollections of the ridiculous, and sometimes, alas, the disastrous results of such a system. Many amongst us may easily call to mind the eccentricities, to use a mild term,, of more than one underpaid and, we had almost written, necessarily inefficient occupant of the judicial bench.

Although we think that our present Eesident Magistrates and Wardens have ample cause for complaint, and that perhaps we do them injustice by appearing reticent in reference to their personal claims, we think it better to abstain from dealing with the question from any other than a public point of view. We could readily elaborate this quostion,and could easily prove how little the public service in general, or the mining and mercantile community in particular, would profit by the cheeseparing saving of £2OO per annum. But enough surely has been written. Every one of our readers will recognise in this proposal a false, if not a dishonest, economy. This proposition, like many others, amply demonstrates that the Nelson members of the Provincial Council are as incapable of understanding our requirements as the Nelson Executive. For this, as for other equally palpable 1 evils, Separation is the only panacea — one which the fatuity of the Nelson people is rendering more and more certain. Of a truth we may say, quos Dcus vult perdcre prius dementat.