The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 1240, 4 September 1875, Page 13

The Otago Witness.

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, SEPT. 4.

The opening of the Clutha line,inaugurates an entirely new epoch in Otagan affairs. Probably but few of those who visited Balclutha comprehended the real and permanent change which would be effected by the fact of a railway being opened for 50 miles into the country. However rapid changes may seem to those who view them after the, lapse of some years rather as historical than as contemporaneous events, it is always noticeable that the effects that follow upon the completion of a great industrial undertaking like this railway are apt to escape notice from, those who were present at ir. Half a generation hence, when those who- are infants among us now are told of the old coaching days in Otago — of the weary rides and drives which their forefathers had to undertake, they will find it as difficult ,as most of us do, to understand that our fathers made their wills before undertaking a journey of some weeks from London to Edinburgh. ' The youngsters of Balclutha will Ibarn to consider a trip into town for a day's sight seeing or shopping as among- 'the possible, events of life, and gefc used to. doing twice a year in six hours what the early settlers who begat them tardily accomplished with a sledge and a pair of harness bullocks once in the twelvemonth.

As a matter of social enjoyment and convenience, the railway to the Clutba will accomplish a most remarkable change, and tend to civilize those who live in the country and enlarge 1 the sympathies of those who live in the town to a remarkable extent j for nothing is more certain than that the extreme difficulties of travelling ia this country have done «« much to persuade our people that they have different interests because they are locally divided as any one thing. ' "' be non apparentibus et dc non existentiuus eadein eat ratio, so runs the legal maxim, and it is as applicable .to matters of social concern as it as' to purely legal affairs. It was exceedingly ' hard to persuade one who had neve ! r been out of Dunedin, up-country, of the wonderful future that is before such: places as the Molyneux district, with its lovely scenery, magnificent rir.tr, fat alluvial soil, and sturdy enterprising inhabitants. Not a few of our fellowcitizens have seldom, if ever, ventured into the country in Otago. Their ideas of ie are bounded by Blueskin and tlie Taieri at most, or a day's picnicking, upon the Peninsula. XJpon the real difficulties of colonisation, the qualities it must require, and the results that may flow from ir, they are as ignorant as if they had never vpnturcd beyond, the sound of the Bow Bells. On the other hand, residents in the country have associated ideas uf a purely business character with their infrequent visits to Dunedin. TJVuaily their time was fully occupied with one matter of business after another, and by the time their work was done their time was up, so that they had little if any knowledge of Dunedin social life, and regarded it solely as a place where every man was trying to get something out of them, as if they were chickens in ' the company of hawks. We do not look upon it as the least of the advantages of the railway that two different sets of Colonists, whose interests, direct and indirect, are inherently identical, should get to know each other better and become amalgamated. Yet, after all, the sooiai advantage, great as it is, must be far less easily apprehended than the commercial gain. Producers and consumer* will come into closer contact, with a direct and appreciable saving in the oost of the necessaries of life. Already we have heard aorae talk of a butchery being established at the Olutha, with a view to breaking down the extravagant and most unreasonable monopoly at present in the handa of the Dtmedin butchers. Milk, bacon, eggs— the lighter as well as the more important items of housekeeping expenses will be diminished without any diminution of producers' profits, but simply from facilities for carriage. The only people who will be sorioualj affected will, in tho first in-

stpres. No, pne will have any deep sympathy with them when they have '©' deny themselves the pleasure of thafc 100 per cent, profit which they have for yearn unscrupulously exacted. Even their los« will be only temporary, and will only amount to this : that with less ground-rent, fewer taxes, far fewer calls upon their purse in every way, tliey will have to vend their goods at; the same price as if they were storekeeping in town, and yet halve to pay the cost of railway carriage. Moreover, the profit will all go directly, into the hands of those who are best entitled to it, namely, the hard-working settler upon the land. "WJe trust that' no blandishments from the storekeeper will blind them to the fact that groceries and fal-lals should be sold at a reduction of at least 50 per cent, after this week. |We might cite a good many other in which the new railway will affect every day life. We shall content ourselves, now with hoping that accidents will be few and far between, and congratulating our country friends upon the boon they have gained.