IS DUNEDIN GOING BACK?

Evening Star, Issue 14624, 21 July 1911, Page 5

IS DUNEDIN GOING BACK?

MR G. M. THOMSON SAYS "NO." I In his address at the Howo Street j Hall last evening Mr G. M. Thomson, j M.P., touched on this question: "Is Dunodin going back?" He said that there was a very pessimistic spirit about Dunodin and its progress. Ho had heard people speaking of Dunodin going back. He did not think that Dunedin was going back. It was not going forward as fast as some of the other parts of the Dominion, but that was a different matter. In Otago they had not the back country to open up that the other centres had. Their goldfields for the present wore not turning out as well as they would like. At the same time, they had to remember that they had not touched the bottom of the Clutha yet, and the day would come when they would devise some means of getting the gold from the bottom of the Clutha. He proceeded to say that a gentleman once asked him in Wellington how old Dunodin was getting on ? Ho told him that old Dunedin was still running the Dominion, and he pointed out to him the number of Dunedin houses that were in business in Wellington. For instance, ho said, there was Sargood, Son, and Ewcu, Bing, Harris, Kempthorno and Prosser, and a ] few more. "And," Mr Thomson! added, "go along the street and you • will find Speight's XXXX sold in every j hotel." (Laughter.) Then, again, one had only to ask a bank manager which ' was the. most solid town, and he would j say Dunedin. Further than that, lie i met a traveller from Auckland, and he j told him that when they got an order • from Dunedin they executed it at once, i but when they got one from Wellington they always wrote to the bank first to • find out how the firm stood. He claimed that Dunedin was the most solid city j of the lot. Take the educational cities j in the north. When they wanted a head teacher they had to romo to Dun- ; edin for one. The secretary of the Edu- : cation Board in Wellington caine from Dunedin. The bead teacher of their Trainiug College was a Dunedin man, and if they went to Wanganui they would find the same thing there. One | had only to look round to sec the j solidity of this province ; but what he ; would liko to see was the people (lis- \ playing a little more pride in their j place. (Applause.) Dunodin people j ought to see that the Otago Central I railway lino was pnshed through, and I more important still, that Otago Ceu- j tral was properly irrigated. With irrigation no part of Tvow Zealand was likely to progress more or carry a more solid population than Central Otago. Tlio same thing held true about the j Lawrence-Roxburgh Railway. There j was no place in Australasia that beat J that part below Roxburgh for fruit j growing. In that connection there was ; another matter that Otago Central ; wanted, and that was tree planting. He j had urged on the Government the | necessity of having a proper forestry | department. Forests were being estab- j lished in many parts, hut the men in ! charge of them were not qualified j foresters, but nurserymen.