The Westport Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1870.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 640, 2 April 1870, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1870.

The" advent of summer, they say, is not always proved by the appearance of a single swallow. To draw a parallel, we might say that the advent of that millennial period when Nelson and Westport will be physically united by rail or road is not quite certainly indicated by the apparitional appearance in our midst of Mr T. A. S. Kynnersley. (Parenthetically we should explain that by "apparitional" we refer not to the fact of Mr Kynnersley having returned to us well-favored and waxing fat, but to the suddenness and unexpectedness of his visit.) If Mr Kynnersley's presence does not predicate the existence of a good road, or the feasibility of a railway, it does, however, illustrate that, when a man has got any "go " in him, the alpine impenetrability of the interior of this country disappears before him as readily as does its morning mist. If it proves nothing unusual or wonderful, Mr Kynnersley's rapid trip across country is still suggestive. It is suggestive both as to the value of this quality of "go" personality of the Executive, and of the somewhat straw-stuffed character of that "bogey" —impenetrability. The little incident is in itself a hopeful index of the initiation of a change from the phlegmatic, feather-bed-tick practice and policy of the Government in the past. And it indicates that if Nelson is to be maintained as the source of management of this part of the Province, that relationship, though it cannot be made altogether so intimate as it ought to be, may still be made much more intimate than it has ever been. The extensive supply of subject for satire which the Superintendent afforded by his unhappy reference to the discharge of his official duties when in bed will be forgotten even bv West Coast Mr Kynnersley concontinue to do a commensurate amount of duty iu the saddle, in active personal inspection of the Province or of its most valuable public estate. And even the railway scheme may be left to realise its good or evil fate, if through his »u;c|naiiitaui;o with the interior resources of the country, and his advocacy of simple but sufficient means of communication, he should assist in associating more closely the populations and the mutual interests of the Nelson, Westport, and Greymouth districts, so that, tria juncta in uno, they may become the prosperous goldfield which their physical attributes and contiguity entitle them to be. To secure the greatest amount of utility from Mr Kynnersley's services in these respects, it will be necessary that his position should be well and definitely defined that while he may be an integral part of the Executive, he should, regardless of the mythical Warden's work at Wangapeka, have distinct departmental duties to perform and responsibilities to bear, either towards the Superintendent, or equally towards his Honor and towards the Provincial Council, as all executive responsibility ought to be. To achieve this, the inevitable alternative is either to institute such a.n office as Goldfields Secretary—an expedient which, though often urged and partially adopted, has not been continued elsewhere—or to re-adjust and also, in its popular sense, to reform the Executive which now exists, so that the Goldfields shall be the major, and not the minor, element represented either in its personal constitution or in the amount of attention which the Goldfields interests receive. Constituted as the Executive now is, with officers enjoying what have almost developed into vested rights, it may be a difficult matter for the Superintendent to place Mr Kynnersley or any other distinctive representative of the Goldfields in the position which he should properly hold. It may be an equally delicate matter for Mr Kynnersley to suggest, much less to insist upon," the adjustment which his experience might entitle him to say would be the most satisfactory. But, on behalf of the public we need have no more delicacy than we have difficulty in saying, in most vulgar metaphor, that what is wanted is no round peg in a square hole, but an official position in which the services of a good man can be best utilised for " the good of the greatest number."