THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1882. THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FIASCO.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2635, 16 September 1882, Page 3

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1882. THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FIASCO.

No doubt the outside world who know ▼ery little about matters in general will take the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce as a sample of the intelligence of the country. If they do so, it is needless to tell Christchurch readers they will be wofnlly mistaken. We have only to turn to the vacillation, the backing and filling, the passing resolutions one meeting and rescinding them the next in connection with the building of a new chamber, to see how uncertain theJOhaHiber of Commerce is. So far as their own private affairs are concerned, they may be permitted to be as inconclusive and as erratic as they please, but when it comes to their dealing with subjects of great public importance the people of Canterbury are certainly entitled to ask that they shall at least take a little trouble to inform themselves on the subject concerning which they intend taking action, and not make such a terrible expose as the recent occasion of the special meeting, to consider the three routes proposed by the Government for the extension of the Middle Island Trunk Railway. There was really no reason to call the meeting at all. The time had passed when any resolutions arrived at by the Chamber would have the slightest weight whatever. The Parliament was on the eve of prorogation, and, except to give the newly-fledged President an opportunity of airing his opinions—-

peculiar in themselves as to things in general—there was no reason what--1 ever for the meeting. However, having been duly aummoned, it would certainly he expected that our great merchants would have, made a ! somewhat better show than a young men’s debating class. As it was, they never rose even to this level. Though it has been asserted that the West Coast railway will greatly benefit the trade of this side, in which, of course, our merchants are interested, there was not one there but had to confess utter and entire ignorance of the subject; and ultimately, on the motion of one of the directors of a very large mercantile establishment, the discussion was adjourned for a month in order to allow members to consult a work containing maps, &c., published by somebody whom nobody knows. This is what our Chamber of Commerce, the boasted leader of public opinion on mercantile matters, has come to. The President knew, or ought to have known, that the members were in town, and that they would at least have been able to supply what appeared to be a great want, viz., the knowledge of what had been done in the House with regard to the matter. But they were never asked to bo present, and the Chamber had to bo content with the information—scanty at the best — vouchsafed by a member of the Upper House, who frankly stated that from the meagre reports given in the Wellington papers as compared with those published here, he was more in the dark, though on the spot, than those who resided in Canterbury. This being so it is vary easy to see how exceedingly unprepared the whole affair was. The President appeared to know very little, and the members less, of the subject for the discussion of which they had been spoeia’ly summoned. The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce has now posed before the colony knowing nothing whatever of a subject which vitally affects the trade of the district. More than that a charge has been made by no leas a personage than the j President himself that half the Canter- , bury members have pledged themselves to support the job of making a line ■ through the Hon. Mr. Robinson’s estate | to nowhere. Now this implies one , thing. To effect such a state of things ! when the members of Parliament 1 for his district know very well that ' the people are opposed to it, and that it , is one of the most flagrant attempts to i improve the estate of a few monied men I at the expense of the colony, cannot but | mean that the wealth possessed by Mr. ( Robinson has been judiciously expended in purchasing the support of these members. We trust that this is not so, 1 but still the members for Canterbury have allowed to remain uncontradicted a most injurious assertion, and one that should as early as possible be repelled. The public 1 will be enabled to judge of the calibre of their merchant princes alike from the fact that such a statement obtained credence, and that they had to admit their utter and entire ignorance on a subject which vitally affects the trade of the district.