The Westport Times. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1872

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 987, 16 July 1872, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, JULY 16, 1872

Tiik majority of the speakers at the meeting in the Court-house on Friday last, while evidently impressed with the truth of the adage that " brevity is the soul of wit," proved by the very conciseness of their utterances, the force and deep intensity of their • feelings upon the subject of " Separation." Men talk most when they are but the champions of a weak cause, and, by a multitude of words, seek to gIo.HS over the defects of their arguments ; but the questiou for discussion on Friday needed no adventitious aid, nor the advancement of plausible theory to assert its importance. The people of Westport met together in <piiet, staid, and business like fashion, for one set purpose. A purpose to which they had been impelled by untoward circumstances, and fast accumulating evils, that havo made their burthens to/) heavy to be longer borne with patience. A change of system of government is not alone desired by the people of ?he South-west Goldfields, but is absolutely needed. The mere instinct of self protection, apart from the promptings of calm and thoughtful reflection, has impressed the indelible conviction on the public mind that Nelson rule, and Nelson lawmakers, aro alike unreliable, unjust, unfitted to advance the prosperity, or even protect the present interests, of the Coast communities. It is only natural, therefore, that Westport should join in the agitation which has sprung up almost simultaneously in every centre of population on the West Coast—with little or no preconcerted arrangement and now gives outspoken expression to the universal desire for, or rather the determination to obtain by constitutional means, a change in the existing system of government. It would be ungrateful not to acknowledge that, of late, the Nelson government has made some slight show of inclination to act justly to the people on the Coast; but, in the very littleness of purpose, and dwarfed conception of duty, the Nelson Government proves beyond doubt, beyond all question, its incompetency to control the affairs of a people, whom they have hitherto treated its aliens, fair game for spoliation aud plunder. Granting'that if the Nelson Government would make a virtue of necessity, and give to the people on the Coast the expenditure of rheir own reyenues, except so far as they are justly responsible for sharing in the cost of government; would equitably apportion to them their share of the general revenues of the Colony; would also give to every man who cared for it the instant opportunity to become his own freeholder; and would foster by every legitimate means, the expansion of local control in purely local matters; then there •would be little need that we should seek any other alliauce. But such things may not be The very ne(vasities of the Nelson Province, proper, precludes the possibility of any su>h consummation.,,. Just as the Nelson traders depend, in no slight meaAre, on the Coast trade and traffic for toeir daily bread; so also

does the Nelson Go vera merit depend on the people here to minister to its necessities, and however strong mny bo the individual wish of the Superintendent, the Executive, or members of the Council, to do justice to the people on the Coast, they are compelled by the exigencies of falling public revenues to perpetuate a self seeking and obstructive policy. We candidly admit that under favoring circumstances we would still prefer the Nelson regime ; believing that the change now proposed, if brought to fruition, will not prove an unalloyed blessing to either the Westport people or the general Buller community ; but under present circumstances the inevitable conclusion asserts itself, that any change cannot bo for the worse.