The Westport Times. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 577, 6 November 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1869.

A wise suggestion is well made, in the interests of the miners, by a correspondent who identifies himself with them, and who writes in another column on the subject of the election of local representatives in the Provincial Council. While admitting the attributes of a gentleman whose name had been mentioned as an eligible representative of the mining community, in contradistinction to that of the town, he suggests that the choice should fall rather on a " real live digger" —such a digger, we presume he means, as would creditably typify his class, and bring to bear, in the counsels of the Council, his practical sense and experience. The suggestion is one which, in such a community as this, must instinctively recommend itself. With the miners represented sufficiently in point of numbers, and efficiently in point of ability, there need be little doubt that those who are dependent on their enterprise and success would also be fully represented. In fact, as the interests of the townspeople are subordinate to those of the miners, so might be the amount or character of their representation; and we are sure that if two " real live diggers," instead of one, could be persuaded to represent the district, anyone of the genus townsman who may have consented, or may contemplate consenting, to become a candidate, would readily, as he would appropriately, retire. The necessity is, as it is in the cooking of hares—you must " first catch your hare." With the numerical strength of voting power possessed by the miners, it would be easy enough for them to return two of their number, but the difficulty is to persuade any two men who do not feel themselves competent to " spin a cuffer " to enter the holy precincts of a very humble Council, or to take part in proceedings where it is mother-wit and not the mouthing of platitudes which is the particular requisite. Thus it is that it unfortunately happens that, in mining communities such distinguished but often unpractical gentlemen as newspaper attaches, mining and general agents, auctioneers, and superannuated clerks are selected to typify the miner and his interests. That representatives with such business connections do occasionally represent their constituencies well and thoroughly is sufciently illustrated by examples, even on this Coast, to which we need not more pointedly refer. But it must also be within the knowledge of those intimate with the interior of Provincial Council Halls, even though they may have only acquired their knowledge as reporters or door-keepers, that the newspaper man is sometimes a literary pedant, the mining agent a very " special pleader," and the auctioneer much of what he usually and appropriately is in " the box." Such illustrations we quote only as existing in other Provinces and Colonies; but they nevertheless do exist. As a rule, a much more satisfactory selection would be made by the selection of practical miners, provided that the majority would give their votes to such men as they would select to adjust one of their own disputes, and not to such ornamental but less useful members of their community as those sylvan gentlemen of the long robe —usually called " bush-lawyers " —who, over a camp-fire or a Sunday dinner, ean so well please their hearers by an eloquent " pitch." A practical man and miner, when combined in the one person, would constitute a representative who would always command respect; and if it should ever be decided, as it has been proposed, that the West Coast should be represented also in the Executive, it is upon such a man that the choice should fall. In another Province such is the selection made. It is, in fact, a recognised principle there that a Groldfields representative, and out of that number the most practical miner, should be an Executive member, as it is also there a recognised principle—although it is not the case here —that the Superintendent should at all times

consult with his Executive. Pity it is that, by the non-recoguition of this principle iu Nelson Province, and especially the non-recognition of the votes of the Provincial Council, the entire duty or right of returning members becomes stripped of its interest in the eyes of the electors. So far, however, as the returning of members may be effective—if it can be effective at all—it is clear that the course suggested by our correspondent is the course to which the preference should be given. Let the miners return a miner. For that part let them return two. There is no irremoveable obstacle, whatever there may arise. The subject is, at least, worthy of meetings being held both on the Terraces and on the Plat; and, if there is one subject within the main subject to which consideration might be given, it is the propriety of the miners combining to re-coup any thoroughly good man whom they may be able to select, and whose attendance at the Council fer their gain might entail upon himself personal loss. Such a man, while advocating their claims, would in all probability be deserting his own ; and it would be unfair that, in such a case, the individual interest should suffer anything for the interests of the many.