BUSH EXILES AND DUNEDIN CITIZENS.

Evening Star, Issue 12884, 6 August 1906, Page 6

BUSH EXILES AND DUNEDIN CITIZENS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —It was with greatpleasure thai I reatf the articles on 'Bush.Exiles'in the Cailins district. The 'Star' is to be congratulated on the possession of a writer of Mr Barclay's calibre, and, the CatlinsTahakopa Kail way League are fortunate in having secured such an able exposition of the needs and claims of their railway. Mr Barclay has evidently the twin gifts of observation and expression, and I know of no writer who could have more simply and yet more eloquently set forth th«s condition of the inhabitants of that great bush country, their their aspirations, their struggles, and' their disappointments. ;They live there, "as it were, in a world apart, addressing themselves to the difficult problem of making, both ends meet. To these the coming of tho railway is the solution of that eternal problem. To the dweller in the city its progress merely spells increased prosperity, hut in the bush the yellow .line of cuttings and embankments crawling through the dim blue wooded distance means temporal salvation. These facts' and many others Mr Barclay has illuminated, and I earnestly urge upon Dunedin citizens, not only to read ' Bush Exiles,' but also to shako off (hat well-fed apathy which characterises most, of us in regard to this and other public questions. The fact is thai most Dunedin citizens are too well off. Id current phrase, they are getting ." threo meals and a bed." almost witholt care or trouble, and if you question them you will find that with the majority their whole ideal of life is summed no in those" three meals and a bed," almost without care or of existence, and it is little wonder that with such low aspirations on the part of the individual, the idea of citizenship, its duties, and its privileges only exists anion;.; a miserable minority.—l am, etc.. Viatoh. August 6.