DUNEDIN'S LOSS.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 304, 22 December 1921, Page 4

DUNEDIN'S LOSS.

The average New Zealander has probably taken less interest in the Union Company since it was absorbed by the P. and O. Company. As a New Zealand concern, which had been built up by New Zealand energy and brains from small beginnings in days when the colony was much smaller and poorer than it is now, it used to be regarded with pride. Now there is a feeling that it has to a I large extent lost its identity, and has I become a unit in a huge world system. | However, this does not deprive of all commercial and sentimental interest ' such a development as the removal of the head office from Dunedin to YVel- ! lington, which was celebrated on Monday with more than a touch or melancholy by the business community of i Dunedin. The company has so long ■been identified with Dunedin that people there must regret the change and regard it as another sign that their city is , 'being left 'behind by its rivals. Dunedin has contributed very largely to the ! commercial prosperity of the Dominion by the establishment and sound manage- . ment of many large and important busi- , ness enterprises. Inevitably, however, the direction of some of these has passed from the slowly growing city to the more central capital. Dunedin has the • consolation of knowing that the energy, j brains and character of her Scottish community have served New Zealand , I well. She has, however, something I better to pride herself upon. More j valuable than this commercial success is the intellectual contribution that . Dunedin, with its special interest in , education, has made to New Zealand ! life. "Otago soon became the model New , Zealand society," says Dr. Scholefield in his "New Zealand in Evolution." "It's enlightened institutions nurtured many of the great political figures of the later decades: its educational institutions produced most of the thinkers, the professional men, and the officials, for the whole of New Zealand." Otago University and the spirit behind it, and not the building up of the Union Company, is Dunedin's chief claim to the gratitude of New Zealand.