CENTRAL OTAGO.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2678, 11 August 1913, Page 4

CENTRAL OTAGO.

In his address to the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce the president said : During the year a trip to Central Otago was organised, mainly through the energy and activity of Mr A. Moritzson. Fourteen North Island members availed themselves ol the invitation, and the trip might be considered to have been successful in every respect The whole of the Upper Clulha Valley was inspected, including the Tarras Hawea, VVanaka and MaUarora districts and the visitors were greatly impressed with the possibilities of Central Otago both as regards cereals and fruit-growing. The people of the province could rely 7 on this ; that any enemy in Parliament who dared to assert that this part of the Dominion was only capable of providing sustenance for ‘one lizard to the acre’ would be looked upon as a lineal descendant of a certain Biblical personage. At certain points of the itinerary a diversity of opinion existed amongst the local settlers as to which was the paramount want—-irrigation or railway communication, and in one case the opinion was emphatically expressed that if the Government provided adequate railway communication the people themselves would attend to the irrigation. T here was a good deal of lorce ih that BS* sertion, and he was of opinion that the all-important factor in the development of the Upper Clutha Valley was railway communication, and that in their own interests the people of Dunedin should use all their efforts to get the Otago Central line pushed through to Hawea, and to use every _ legitimate means in their power to induce the present or any future Government to carry out the promises made in the past, .