The Westport Times. SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1870.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 691, 30 July 1870, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1870.

The proposals of the Colonial Treasurer are so dazzling and on a scale so magnificent, when compared with the population of the colony, promising too someimmediate benefitfor every section of the community, that it can scarcelv be matter for surprise that the scheme, as a whole, should have met with little or no opposition. With the exception of immigration on the scale proposed, and the fresh imposts and increase in the tariff", the proposals are well calculated, if considerably modified, carefully matured, and skilfully carried out, to advance the progress of the colony. It is' the introduction of these modifications and details which will involve the more serious trouble and consideration, and upon the manner in which the proposed loans are expended will essentially depend the success of the scheme. The Treasurer, in explanation of the large amount it was proposed to expend, referred to the fact of there being so many divisions of the Colony, whose inhabitants considered themselves on a par with their neighbors, and who were equally entitled to a share of the expenditure. Whether for the sake of political gain or in a sincere belief that railways and other public works may be advantageously constructed throughout the various portions of the colony, the present Government contemplate that all portions should participate, as nearly as possible, on equal terms in the sums to be expended. Provincialism is still to be so far considered that each Province, apart from its condition, the special nature of its industries and population, will come in for a share of the expenditure. We fear that the

very comprehensiveness of the scheme is likely to lead to disastrous failure and disappointment, and that the undue concessions likely to be made to various provinces, whose condition would not entitle them to any considerable Bhare in the proposed expenditure, will be the means of frittering away, in a useless direction, large sums that might be expended upon localities better calculated to prove reproductive. It would have been preferable and far more likely to conduce to the benefit of the entire country if the question were treated altogether from a Colonial point of view, entirely unfettered from the embarrassment of Provincial claims. It must be sufficiently appareut, that any government which consults provincial interests must fail in most beneficially expending a large loan; special claims,having no other basis than that the district, furnishing them form arbitrary divisions of the colony, must be satisfied if the present Ministry are to retain office; and it is to be feared that the love of power will induce numerous concessions prejudicial to the general welfare of the Colony. A scheme which might have offered a large measure of prosperity, if in the hands of Ministers favoring a central form of government and the abolition of provincial institutions, must be viewed with disquietude under the direction of a government supported by those, alone, who are interested in maintaining these institutions.