DUNEDIN NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4869, 29 June 1901, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

[Own Cobbespondent.] Well, it is all over. The Royal visit ( is now a matter of history. The Ophir n ' is miles on her way to Tasmania, and 3 the probabilities are that we shall never f see her or her freight again. However, . it ' has been a real good time whilst it - lasted, and whilst the Duke and Ducbesß , have undoubtedly had their eyes opened i to the greatness and extent of the Em- " pire, we also feel that the visit will re3 suit in a more lasting, in fact a permanent, mutual understanding between | Dowling-street and Australasia. The people are alright. It is the officials ; that want a little oommonsense knocked [ into them. i Wednesday dawned mild, sunny and ! clear, with just sufficient wind to dry • the ground. It was an ideal day and maintained its good behaviour to the end. Just such an one as Dunedin is 1 as likely to give as fa mid- winter as raid-summer. Let no one dare lay aught against our weather after Wednesday last. Thousands upon thousands of welldressed and orderly people thronged the streets from nine o'clock in the morning till midnight, and when at night the town was illuminated and bonfires were lit on the surrounding hills and the fireworks hissed and burst in gold and silver 'showers then, indeed, it was a scene that we shall not soon forget. ' - - ' ' - The Royal procession was a great success. From first to last the cheering was hearty, continuous and full. One of the English journalists told me that there had been nothing like the mighty roar that went up from the Octagon when the Dnke mounted the dais and spoke his little speech, and my informant had Been every show from the first landing till the last. Our other friends from our own large centres unhesitatingly award the palm to Dunedin both in point of whole souled welcome and decorations. As a trooper remarked to me at the veterans' dinner " When Dunedin lets herself go she can lick the world." As for the Royal oonple themselves many, I suppose, would be and were disappointed. The pictures and photographs and Press reports are wonderfully misleading, perhaps designedly so, especially of the Duke. There is a kind of conspiracy of silence, or the circulation of wrong impressions, about the business. In fact a Wellington journalist told me that thinking to tell the truth he wrote in his account of the proceedings thac the Duke's cheeks were cvi* dently rosy with the winter's wind. This his editor erased with the remark that " theirs was a loyal paper." Personally I fail to see where the loyalty or lack of it comes in. I was within a yard or two of the Duke at one of the functions and can affirm that he is not above the normal type of man in looks or bearing. Bis Gheeks and his nose are, or were, red ; his hair is thin and he is bald at the back ; his physique is slight and his height less than the average — in face the heels of his shoes are made high purposely. To me he seemed nervous, diffident and as though conscious that he was not adapted to bear the fearful responsibility accident had imposed upon him. The Duchess is nice. She is tall, , much taller than he, fair, blue eyes, even white teeth that show when she { smiles, and, I should think, affable and gracious. Not a beauty, but still one we can admire. lam told that in even- , ing costume she is pleasant to look up- \ on and that her shoulders are amongst the loveliest of any of her sex. When the history of this world trip is honestly written and free from the faintest vestige of flattery — if it ever is so written — it will be found that the Duchess smoothed , much, helped much, and largely carried the affair successfully through. Per- | sonally, I prefer Queens. ( We shall now get back to the grim ] realities of every-day life. Our dream j of Imperialism is over. We have been , living at white heat for nearly two { years, although we have, I hope, learned | much in that timo. The era of holidays - and " sends off," of welcomes home and : street; parading, of " Tommy -A.fckins,' f < and boys in khaki, has Cnlminafced in a , visit from Royalty, arches, decorations ' and fireworks. This is as it sbonld be. , There is nothing like having a finish to ] your products, fashioning them off as it were, before finally relegating them to , the attic. , Dunedin has done this. We have supped our food and gazed our fill and < here we are back to hard grinding every , day — ever present facts. They are nob , nice things. I admit, but we can't get , away from them. And Duuedin has to { face a few " sneezers." JTor example, we haven't done with that mining boom , yet and we can't shake it off. We shall ] have to pay for it to the uttermost far- , thing. Some dredges are doing well, , some fairly, some badly, some not at ( all. And, in addition, there are the j lovely, fascinating, tantalising ones j that never got beyond the prospectus , but which are drawing out our savings j and earnings with the certainty in front , of us that we are putting our money in- ] to a bottomless pit. , Then there is the cost of living. This ( is, at least, 30 per cent, higher, as any } housewife knows, than it was two years ( ago, and the price must come down or ( the ordinary, average worker must go j to the wall. Dunedin is about the j dearest place — bar Wellington — of any ( other in the colony or, if it is not, then I j am sorry for other places. Our foun- j dries are paying men off, their main , work, dredge building, is slacking every ] day and the edifice erected upon our , boom is tottering in a most ungainly j fashion, . This means hard times, and hard ] times mean men onfc of work and dull . trade, and the question will then arise , are our workers, who have been hauling j their employers before Conciliation . Boards and Arbitration Courts, so j wonderfully better off? In shortening j hours and raising wages, artificially, ( for the few they have, seemingly, lost , sight of the fact tbat the employer has , had to pass these advances on to some , one else, i.e. the consumer, and, as a re- } suit, every man with a family has felt ( the pinch of increased rates without , being one whit better off. A few gain a ] littls the vast majority Buffer. | One does not like to be a growler or , pessimistic, but I am merely reaffirming what I- have affirmed before tbat all unnatural stimuli to trade must create, } in time, a reaction. Booms are not ( natural, therefore you must pay for them; artificial barriers placed in the way of the free exchange of a man's labor for what he can get in the open j market are purely temporary in their 1 "effect and we must pay for them also. , "V! ou cannot dam up a river for all time. , Sooner or later it has to push over, and , then something gives and somebody is ( hurt. " Supply and demand "is a fact not a law, and you can't get away from it try how you will, and so long as there ' are three men for two jobs it will continue the wide world over. Making the cost of living high for all three does absolutely no good. It would be better for the two in work and the one out of work if they had the satisfaction of knowing that at all events.it takes only ■ a little .money to purchase a big loaf and a decent home. However, the tale is old, the orator too green, the answers many, and experience alone can solve the conundrum. Meantime Dunedia business firms and retail traders think that they have seen and had the best of the plenty and prosperity that we have heard so much about and that we are. now to enter upon the « lean " period. " Qubbk Victoria, her Life and Times," a complete history of » gloriooi reign, with illustration!, it given aw»y with 61bs of fragrant BookOift Ten,"