The Westport Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1872

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 994, 9 August 1872, Page 2

The Westport Times. FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 1872

The highly interesting document ■emanating from the Superintendent's ■ office, Xe!sou, forwarded to Westport • under -special -instructions from the Provincial Secretary, and purporting -to be the Humble Petition of Inhabitants of the Nelson Province, praying (that the members of the Plouse of-Re-presentatives will not pass any measure for the disintegration of the Province ; has been, since its advent in Westport, jealously guarded a3 some most precious thing, to be kept sacred from the unhallowed gaze of all Separa- : furnish*. We may congratulate its custodian upon the faithful discbarge of bis duty, but it becomes necessary to also express a concurrence in the general public opinion, manifested in no measured terms, that it would have been more honorable, more gentle manly, and infinitely more indicative of a sincere desire to advance public welfare, on the part of the promoters • of this mysterious Anti-separation Petition, had they followed the example of the Westport Separation Committee, and given full publicity to their actions. In the public mind it adds to the contempt in which Nelson rule is held, when the Executive of the Province stoop to such a mean, iinderband, method of advancing their own individual interests. We use these words advisedly, because they but re-echo very freely expressed comments, and because the words of the document prove, indubitably, that a regard for self interest, and the conservance of present place, pay, and power, rather than any earnest desire to act justly to the South-west G-old-tfiolds, has alone induced the present Anti-separation agitation. In the pursuit of knowledge tinder difficulties, we asked for and obtaiued a cursory .•glance at the mysterious document; sunder notice, and are thus enabled to give our readers —those who have not signed, and, none the less, the few who have —a fair idea of its contents. The " humble petitioners" object to the introduction of any measure for 'division <df the Province of Nelson, or the adding of a portion to Westland territory. They express a belief •that Buch alteration would leid to a large increase in departmental expenditure, and hence to a diminution in funds for Public Works, Education, &c. thus tending to " financial embarrassment," both on the goldfields and in Nelson province, proper ; and to the suspension of settlement on the Goldfields, new said to be steadily expanding. It is also submitted that injury would arise to the G-oldfields by separation from Nelson nni conjunction with Wescland, involved as that county is in debt, which the petitioners assert

its revenuos'friil to realise sufficient to HUstain. '1 he petitioners also express a belief that good government cannot [ revail amongst a community wholly ■engaged in oho pursuit, mien a* mining; but that mining, agricultural, ii|t«j pa. toral pursuits, aro best combined as now exists in the Province 0/ Nelson. We do not pretend to give the ipsisdiita verba of tho document, but our version will be fouud substantially correct. Fr'un the first word to the last it contains not one single liae or word rebutting the pleas put forth by the Westland Separation Committee, and published on the ISth July last; wherein complaint is made of the apathy displayed by the Nelson Government as to the progress and development of the Goldfields j the negiect to open np the country by roads and tracks ; tho loss of population thereby incurred; the contribution of nearly three-fourths of the revenue of the Province by the Goldfields, and the niggardly expenditure thereon, compared to the expenditure on Nelson city and environs; the swallowing up of a large proportion of revenue in general charges ; the small and unfair proportion of members for the GoldSelds permitted to have a voice in the Nelson Council- the vesting of almost absolute power in the Superintendent and his Executive, to «pend public moneys when, where, and how they please; the obnoxious adadministration of the delegated powers on the GoldSelds; the wasteful expenditure of money under inefficient or negligent control ; the teachings of practical experience showing that the interests of agricultural and pastoral districts being so widely different from the Goldfields interests, it is impossible for one to legislate for and impartially do justice to the other ; and, finally, the prayer of the Westland petitioners for connection with tho Greymouth and Rokitika ■districts, or such other provision for future government as shall seem most meet to tho houorable House of Representatives for insuring "a local expenditure of a fair proportion of revenue in the districts where it is produced ;" but to the utter exclusion of any expressed intention or willingness to share Wostknd's liabilities. Against '-no single point herein enumerated does the Nelson anti-Separa-tion Petition advance a single argument. The whole burden of its story is that the proposed separation would result in " financial embarrassment " to both portions of the territory proposed to be divided: which fairly interpreted, may be taken as meaniug that the residents on the Goldfields might possibly experience the novel sensatiou of expending their own public revenues-; and our Nelson city friends and their agricultural and pastoral-confreres would find some "financial embarrassment" in paying tho salaries of the present Governmental staff. The expression of opinion that any alteration of boundaries would lead to an increase in departmental expenditure, is the rankest fustain, seeing that annexation as one province with Westland, would r.ther lessen than augment the expense of joint government, however much it might leave Nelson proper to its own devices. So also are equal]v rotten, fie assertions made that, under the present regime, the permanent settlement of the Goldfields is steadily advancing, and that the mining, pastoral, and agricultural interest, as now existing, work harmoniously together. In the one instance the Nelson Government know full well that the permanent settlement of the Goldfields retrogrades, rather than advance?, and that the present regulations for agricultural settlement are part and parcel of an ingenious system for improving permanent settlers off the face of the earth, and, in the second instance the " Humble petiti oners" seem to have forgo! ten. to credit the members of the House of Representatives with the slightest geographical knowledge of New Zealand ; in the attempt to gloss over the hard, undeniable, fact that between the agricultural and pastoral settlements of Nelson proper and the South-western Goldfields, the distance is as from " Dan even unto Beersheba," or in plain matter of fact language, twenty-four hours steaming from port to port; and that the people in and around Nelson city, and their representatives in Council, haveno moreideaofthe justrequirements of the Goldfields," than they have of the political economy of Moonland. The traders of Nelson find a profitable market for their produce and merchandise on the Coast, a market which will he open to them under any circumstances, for years yet to come. It is satisfactory also to them to see hard won Goldfields money expended in and around their own little belongings. The members of the Nelson Government also have experienced too long the pleasurable sensation of sharing in a goodly spread of loaves and fishes, to relinquish a prospect of future pickings, without a struggle. Hence the emanation of the mysterious Anti-Separationist Petition ; at once an insult to the common sense of the members of the House of Representatives, and a comtemptible sham, without a single redeeming point in its favor.