DUNDIN REVISITED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14926, 31 August 1910, Page 10

DUNDIN REVISITED

Sir,—As aa old Duncdiirite—having been bora tliwo and liv«d there for over 20 yeans,—it is abnost needless to say I have always had an intt'itse love for the old town, and havo always looked forward to the time I would lie able to retire and settle (irnvn in my native place- After 20 years' absence .1 revisited Duncdin, and f.oukl hardly realise that its inhabitants were the same peoph 1 was never mc.ro disappointed ;n my life The first time I revisited the city was about two years ago, and tlio iiiiprasioii left >n my mind was that th« people, were degenerating, and very fast, too. A sul.\-cc[u:-nt visit lias confirmed that opinion. WJisir a. teem or athletes eonies up here we old Uumcdin people always go to tee tlrem play and oheer thc-m on, but we have always to lace disappointment. Thsrs seems to bo no fight in them. In. fact, _ tltoy mo just plaything* for ffoo mom virile Norm Islanders, mid are- looked on and spoken ol with confeniuc by them. How different ; t is«i to be wJien Otago men could hold their own with the best In Now 'Zealand, „ik' nwro '.barn hold their own Xn r«visitin 2 the viwn tlio thing ihat c'l'uck me most was the air of settled gloom thai sesmed to hang over the people, Thero Kiemetl nothing j-oyous about thorn, and certainly dm Visit* i Jiuve lately paid have tfispelled soma of my ;;iost cherished illusions. Though not a total abstainer, I bare always voted for prohibition, believing what the- prohibition lecturers are always preaching—that prohibition would enrich a plate, and that a town would progress under it. But what law down that sr,d of New Zealand has dispelled lihat dream forever. In Duncdin it oeonied to h* tlio all-afcsorb-ing topic The people, seemed to think of that and nothing else, and such things as program ireiw utterly Neglected-. 1 saw plainly enough wliv Duncdin \wa getting left so far b?likd (he three other principal towns, and imbs? th-co is an awakening vory soon it will not bo Men the fourth city in New Zealand, as some of the lesser towns will overhani it. The old pioneers a,nd gold miners built tha town for tha prcpont generation out ot the wilderness, (intl their work, is no diswaee U them, and stands as a monument, "to' their memory, but what are their descendants doing? Tliej are letting the othor towiw take all tho plums out of the basket and giving Dunedin the empty basket to carry, and tihey carry it without a protest. Tj'e. men thoy nut ii, Parliament seem to havo neither the energy nor tha ilcsiro to protost. How different from the representatives of former days If Sir Joseph Ward hadi ditpyj to flout them and stop an important work like the Roxburgh, railway would tliej not have risen in arms awl given him to understand ivho he had to reckon with? Or would ho do siwh a thin.r if he. had.tho present Auckland memhoTs to deal, with, bt -would he 'have doW it to Auckland. Why, I belicvo tk Auckland' people would vote against him to a man, and they -would want to know what their representatives wore doing During my first visit I went to tha theatre; there was a good company playing, but the place was half empty. ' I saw the- same company playing in Auckland and Wellington, and there was not, standing room. I went to the rao*s, and tho fields and the attendance would havo disgraced a North Wand Maori meeting. I osfcd a friend, How do the people enjoy themselves here? 1 told him my experience. Ho said, "Come with me. to-night and I -mill show you.'' So I went with him, and, judging by the number of people, who were going tho'same way (about, 7 o'clock), I began to think I _ was going to see or hear something. Well, wo managed to squeeze ouiselves into tho hall, and libera must have been nearly half of Dmiedirr there to hear a ma,n expounding the old prohibition' tale. I saw tin same man holding- forth in Palmorcta North to about 20 iwoplc one night shortly afterwards. I raid before that mv visit oratteivd my illusions-well, this is 'how it did it Take Auckland, for instance, you mill see more drinking in ona night, tlioro than you would see in Duncdin in; a week. The theatres would bo crowded, imtf wfcen the.i-o are races tsre.re. is a pound or mere put on the machine for ovory shilling in Duncdin All th«re things tend to make poverty, ko I was always led to tnink, and retard tha progress of the town. Yet, Auckland will soorr hare double the population of Duncdin. and the samo thing applies to Wellington m:d> Ckistolmrch, as things are practically tho same there, though perhaps not so pronounced. Yet Dmredin was the. only town in which the voice of the unemployed was heard and relief works required So my advice to its people is to make their town attractive to all classe, so that pcoplo with money will settle in it instead of clearing out to more congenial condition;?, and to put men in. Parliament' wh<> will look after their interests. And lot. Mis nsnrg generation try and bring back tho standing of tho town to what their fathers left, it. There aro very few of the old pioneers left; but those there are are doing th* work that, tho young men should he doing, simply because their mantle is not taken up.—l am, etc., Oi,c Dukkdinitf.