The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 780, 23 February 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1871.

The great difficulty to the immediate solution of the question of Westport being made a port of call for the Melbourne steamers has been the want of a steaui-tug attatched to the port. The difficulty has been presented to the public times out of number, but beyond a ready assent to the proposition, no well concerted effort lias been attempted to supply the want It uuiy be said—and the subject has been met with the objection—that the times selected for starting the scheme were inopportune, and also that the proposal was not taken up properly or with spirit. In respect to the latter objection we are inclined to concur; and we think it all the more necessary that some well-considered and vigorous action should be adopted in order to secure the stepping-stone to such an important advantage as the placing of Westport in direct steam communication with Melbourne.

While admitting that possibly the ordinary traffic in gold, passengers, and goods would not enable Messrs M'Meekan and Blackwood to place a small vessel at this port to secure regularity in the tendering of their boats, there would appear no valid reason that the matter should not, he taken up by our townspeople. We venture to think that the traffic which the certain visits of the ocean steamers would secure, together with the towages which our extending trade promises, would show to any capitalist a- payable dividend upon the capital to be expended. The subject is indeed one well worthy of consideration. "With the certainty, in a few mouths, of very considerable gJd yields from the reefs of the Lyell and the Inangahua in addition to the unearthing of alluvia! deposits in those districts, we mav reasonably reckon upon a material increase in the population and productiveness of our goldfields. During one session of the Council a sum of money, subsidising a similar undertaking, was placed upon the estimates, and it is not unlikely that, in view of the scheme being carried out, the Council might again be induced to lend s uue assistance.

If the questiin is taken up in :m earnest and business-like manner, wit':! a determination to weigh candidly and carefully its importance and its probable results, we eulcrtain no doubt that a successful and a speeJy organisation will follow the enquiry. It is, at least, thebotinden duty of all to do what lay in their power to advance the material prosperity of the place from which they derive, in many eases, large benefits, and the step suggested would tend, very greatly, to improve the commercial relations of the community.