The Westport Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1874.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1144, 23 January 1874, Page 2

The Westport Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1874.

There lately appeared in the Nelson Colonist a copy of an addendum to one of the very many reports of the Select Committee of the General Assembly on Colonial Industries. It was in the form of correspondence between Mr D. M. Luckie and Mr W. A. Murray the chairman of Committee, and enclosures therein of letters addressed by Mr W. Akersten to Mr Luckie, and having reference to the coal deposits of the Province. Mr Akersten, who signs himself " Marine Surveyor by appointment of bis Excellency Governor Gore Brown," expresses bis opinions as to the method whereby this province and New Zealand generally may be benefitted, and writing from a purely Nelson point of view, he ignores or by too faint praise condemns all other coalbearing districts withiu the Province, away from the neighbourhood of Blind Bay. He avers, and perhaps to some extent correctly, that Nelson, having a " central position, fine weather, and an abundance of coal near a good place of shipment," will yet come to the front in commerce. Then jumping immediately to a conclusion based neither on reason or facts, he asserts wiih cool assurance that on the Coast—the West Coast—unlimited supplies of coal are of little or no value because the ports of entry are bad, presenting all the dangers of shifting channels and shallow bars on a lee shore, " exposed to the full force of ocean swell of thousands of miles fetch," and where " all the money the whole colony of New Zealand could spare would not make them even third class ports." Nevertheless, says this veracious writer, " The steps taken to connect the mines with the ports are judicious, because, notwithstanding the disadvantages above referred to, there will still be a trade in coal, as back freights or limited shipments in specially constructed vessels carrying small cargoes. ' But no ocean steamers or snips can loaa due oy tender.' " Thus writing up to the point he desires to favorably dilate on, does the writer draw invidious comparisons between the demerits of the West Coast and the merits of some specially favored spot "near to Tomatea Point, Golden Bay, about half-way between Pakawau and Collingwood, and iu the neighborhood of which place is abundance of iron ore, plumbago, marble, and limestone." We fail to trace in the records of the transactions of tho Committee of Colonial industries that Mr Akersten's special pleading had any particular influence on the deliberations of that Committee, but we confess to some curiosity to know the why and wherefore of the publication of this special correspondence, now some months after the Assembly has been prorogued andthefunctibnsof the Committee suspended. It indicates of a verity one thing, our neighbors in Sleepy Hollow are not all asleep, and if 'twere possible to steal a march on their Coast friends they have the nous to do it. For years past tho columns of this journal have teemed with discussion and dissertation on the coal question. E?ery possible line of argument has been exhausted, every fact adduced tending to obtain consideration for the claims, the capabilities, and advantages of the coastal ports as depots for the shipnv nt of coal, drawn from inexhaustible supplies, and yet it has failed to arouse any persistent earnestness of purpose among the people most nearly interested. Action at the best has been fitful and faint-hearted. Absorbed in the more attractive pursuit of speculation in quartz, the coal fields of the Coast, until very recently, have been neglected, and coastal residents while quite content that the Press should, in season and out of season, constantly plead in their behalf, have yet been like sleepy inmates of a house, hearing their watchdog bark without, but never bestirring themselves to see whether friend or foe stood in the gate.