The Westport Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 539, 5 August 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1869.

Since the petition for the Separation of Nelson and its South-West Coldfields has been forwarded tor presentation to the House of Ilepresentatives, it has been little heard of, however anxiously it may have been thought of or dreamt about. We think the only official mention made of the petition has been the intimation that it had been received by the late Premier, Mr Stafford. Then we heard, through Mansard, that it had been remitted to the Public Petitions Committee. And subsequently we learnt from less authoritative, but more numerous sources of information, that the authenticity of some of the signatures was much questioned by tho enemies to the cause of Separation, aud even doubted by those who were avowedly its friends. We at the time vouchsafed au explanation of the mauuer in which it happened that some of the signatures were not written, in

propria persona, by the people whose names they represented, and we are sorry that it was not within oar humble power to vouchsafe also that the Public Petitions Committee would be generous euough to take a similar view of the circumstances, or to receive a possibly honest, if certainly irregular, explanation of how they had. arisen. Since that time, and until

; yesterday, there lias been received in \ Westport no hint whatever as to the . petition's fate, and there begau the ; fear that, like " full many a (literary) gem of purest ray serene," it might ho.ve been committed to those " dark unfathomed caves" to which the " dusty vaults " of the House of Representatives—if it has any "dusty vaults " —are occasionally, and by a considerable stretch of the imagination, compared. Even " our own " Wellington correspondent, usually wellinformed as he is, has in his last letter to make the following confession : I can hear nothing of your now County Bill, and am inclined to think that it has been overlooked among questions possessing more general interest. All men are to a greater or less degree .selfish, and M.li.E.'s are after ail only mortal. From another and an authoritative source, however, we yesterday learnt, and to-day we publish, the facts as to the manner in which the petition has been technically and figuratively " eat upon" by the Committee. From a private correspondent in Wellington we have this information : The Public Petitions Committee have reported on your Separation Petition as follows: "They found that very many of the names contained in the petition were written by one person; that the petition was therefore contrary to the Standing Orders of the House; and that, consequently, they could not recommend the House to consider the prayer of the petition." Our correspondent adds : I carefully examined the names myself, and I must agree with the Committee that many of the names were written by one or two persons. That such should be, even nominally, the cause of the defeat of the object of the petition is undoubtedly to be greatly regretted, for, however hotly it may be asserted by those unacquainted with the circumstances, and by those opposed to Separation, the statement that any faultiness or falsification of the signatures is in any way attributable to the Separation Committee, or to the prime promoters of the cause, is utterly beyond belief. The sincerity of that Committee's intentions no one acquainted with their proceedings can for a moment doubt; and we should hope that there is no one in the district who will not as implicitly lelieve that, if there has been informality in the signatures, it has only been the result of stupidity and thoughtlessness on the part of those who were, at best, indifferently identified with the agitation for the division of the Province. That the '

signatures should be other than bona fide was as much contrary to the " Standing Orders " of the Separation Committee as it can be to the " Standing Orders " of the House, and it is entirely contrary also to the spirit in which those who, as advocates of Separation, collected " h.ird cash," and, for the mere mechanism of obtaining those signatures, and not for the signatures themselves, paid it away. It is al ways one consideration—if not an altogether satisfactory one in connection with the extension of the County System—that, irrespective of informality, the prayer of the petition would not have been recommended by the Committee, or adopted by the House. At least, so estimates our correspondent, who says:— It makes, however, very little difference. It would ultimately have met the same fate if it had been according to Standing Orders. There is a very strong inclination on the part of the House not to allow anymore Counties. The Colonial party *aro almost unanimous on that point. Enumerating them the other day, I could hardly count twelve members likely to vote for the separation ofWestland North from Nelson; and we may depend that, so long as the Provincial party are in office, instead of creating Counties, they will, as indicated in the Treasurer's statement, try to strengthen the Provinces. Our correspondent does not add, but Ave may add it for him, that, so far as regards this district, it was chiefly compelled to contemplate the County System as an antidote to the bane of the Province—the Curtis system—and, with the best antidote now unavailable, an effort must be made to apply the next best—next time. What that antidote and the time of its application may be our readers will probably translate for themselves.