INERT INVERCARGILL.

Southern Cross, Volume 7, Issue 27, 15 October 1898, Page 8

INERT INVERCARGILL.

“ Things are dreadfully dull in town just now. The weather’s had •something to do with it, and so has the influenza, but there’ll be a turn for the better soon.” Remarks tothis effect have been frequent of late, and the other dayi,a citizen who has witnessed the ups downs of thedistrict for many years, ventured a theory as to the cause of the depresion. “ The fact is,” he said, “we are helping others and not ourselves.. Settlement is extending rapidly, but the town is not keeping pace with the country. We are helping Dun-, edin instead of ourselves. Her travellers scour the country, her merchants open branch establishments in our midst, and do* the business that ought to be done by the' local people.. We lack enterprise. There was more of that quality in the place 25 years ago than there is now, A blight seems to have fallen on us. It is the same story all round. There is the Seaward Bush line, for example. It is admitted that its extension would* give a big impetus to settlement and bring Invercargill—the natural centre —into touch with a district to none in the colony. It is knownthat there is to be another loan, but while Dunedin and other places are clamouring for a share of the spoil, we are silent— the railway committee might as wejl not be in existence for all the sign it makes.” So ended the growl. The weakness that makes the past seem better than the present is proverbial, but for all that there may be some truth in the friendly indictment. If so, let those concerned take it to heart.