Dunedin Gossip.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 2211, 5 September 1910, Page 5

Dunedin Gossip.

(B'bom Our Own Coiuusi-onbent.) September 2. A letter by an Old Dunedinite giving the impression left on his mind after revisiting tho city several times has attracted some attention. Not that there is anything new in it, but because it puts in fairly terse language the unspoken thoughts of many others. Its topic is the degeneracy of Dunedin and its people. The mutter was referred to at the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in a casual way and one of the members contended that the im pression in other parts of the Dominion that Dunedin was going hick was not justified, lie held that we hail naturally lost the distributing commerce we had but we still led in manufacturing. Do we? Dunedin at one time not only led in the manufacture of agricultural implements but had practically the whole of it. In that line it is almost a certainty Christchurch now leads. The first generation who made money at it have passed away and the young ones who succeeded them have not pushed the business. We were pioneers in the frozen meat trade, but it, has been absorbed by Canterbury people. The earlier generation in Otago also pioneered woollen manufacture, the making of clothing on a large scale, the dairying industry and many other things. We have not lost our preeminence in them all but we are being hard pressed in some of them. Returning to Old Dunedinites letter he quotes as proof of our degeneracy that whereas in past days our athletes could more than hold their own they are now looked on with contempt by the more vigorous northeners, We speak, think, and vote prohibition and shut up hotels because the money that was being spent in them was deemed to be wasted, yet Dunedin is not progressing with the money so saved. He found a good theatrical company playing in Dunedin to a miserable house after seeing them in the north perform to houses where there was no standing room. He went to a hall where nearly half Dunedin appeared to be gathered to listen to. a man telling the same old story about prohibition who could only attract about 20 people in Palmerston North. In Auckland as much drinking takes place in a night as in a week in Dunedin and when races are on people flock to them and have their pound or so on the totalisator. All these things it is sr.id tend to cause poverty, and yet Auckland is booming and will soon have double the population of Dunedin. It is the same with Wellington and Christchurch. At Wingatui races tiie fields and the attendance of the people would be considered poor in an inland country town in the north, and yet these places flourish while they ought to be poverty stricken and Dunedin, which does not waste its money in hotels, on the racecourse, or on amusements, is stagnant if not decadent. The indictment has many counts and the worst of it is that the charges appear to be supported by facts. Will the people of Dunedin in particular and of Otago in general wake up and remove the reproach that they are a decadent race. Central Otago must have lost thousands of its population. What is being done to retain those remaining? Well may Old Dunedinice contrast the piesent politicians and their lack of energy with men like Macandrew, Vogel, Donald Ileid. Sir John Richardson, Dillon Bell, and others who fought for Otago and pushed it into the forefront. Once more the Competitions Society is holding its carnival. One would like to get awny from tho role of a pessimist, but here, too, anyone revising us and comparing the present with the immediate past might find so-called proofs of degeneracy for the entries have fallen off wofully. Proof also of our want of unity and cohesion is to be found in the fact that only two choirs have entered, both suburban. Just imagine, none of the choirs in the numerous churches in Dunedin are prepared to compete ftgainst Green Island. This, and the falling off in the entries is the more surprising as wo have a new lot of judges, all outsiders. The two leading judges are somewhat garrulous gentlemen who take up a good deal of the time of the audience. One of tty&r» has such quaint ways with him that one young lady was led to remark of him that surely he must be the humorous item on the programme. If the judges could only teach the young people to take a beating what a service they would render. Is faddiness a sign of degeneracy ? If so, then Dunedin is in a bad way, for we are full of fads. The latest is the formation of a branch of the Eugenics Society, which is to educate the people in the matter of who should marry and who should not be allowed to do so, and who should have children and who should be locked up to prevent their propogatin<* their species. We are assured that one of its chief functions will be the study of tho laws of heredity but as the most eminent scientists are all at loggerheads as to what are the laws of heredity and the influence of environment, the task seems a difficult

one. The promoters talk about the care taken in the breeding of animals but they said nothing as to the heavy culling which a breeder carries out yearly so that his (lock or herd shall be kept to a certain standard. Presumably the Eugenics Society will have to educate the people into allowing this culling to go on in the case of humans. Meantime while we are seeking after perfection the Japs or the Chinese may take a fancy to our country and then what will become of our eugenics.