A USEFUL INSTITUTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19020, 16 November 1923, Page 4

A USEFUL INSTITUTION.

Every modern and progressive city

must apparently have an organised body of citizens imbued with the idea of extending the knowledge of its attractions and safeguarding its interests. The Otago Expansion League ha 6 a wider aim even than this, for in addition to popularising the city's attractions, it seeks to develop the province, of which the city is the central rallying point. At the present time the League is engaged in strengthening its finances in order to extend its usefulness, and it may be confidently hoped that its effort will be successful.... The organisation has justified its existence, and it has on many occasions rendered useful service. Its record of tangible achievement will bear close examination, and its claim to have materially assisted in the extension of irrigation in Central Otago, to have created tho experimental farm at Galloway, to have secured improved conditions of land tenure on pastoral areas, to have pushed forward the deviation and duplication of the railway between Dunedin and Ravensbourne, and to have stimulated, the development of an Electric Power Board for Otago—rests upon a solid basis. But the League has also a record of very useful work in the' realm of publicity, and its pamphlets and leaflets have had a wide circulation. That they have produced results is generally known to all who take a keen interest in the development of the province, and there is wide scope for" extended effort in this direction. The coming of the Exhibition in Dunedin will undoubtedly impose new and increasing demands on the resources and energies of the League, and it would be detrimental to the best interests of the province if its activities were circumscribed by lack of funds. As the League has undertaken the conduct of the Information Bureau at the Exhibition it is necessary that it should be adequately equipped in this respect, and in consideration of its past usefulness and future promise the appeal which it is making for wider support should not fall on deaf ears. The time is opportune for the business section of the community to show in a practical way its appreciation of the League's activities.