DUNEDIN NOTES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4895, 28 September 1901, Page 3

DUNEDIN NOTES.

[Own Odbbespondent.]

Dwellers in Dunedin are somewhat like the frogs iv the fable. They asked for a new king when they were dissatisfied with their old log, but as soon as the stork began to assert himself they cried, out for somebody else. That's how it is down here. We laughed and made fun of Mayor Chisholm's energy and professed to be a little weary of his " freedom's battle once begun " school of oratory, but having got rid cf him and installed our King Stork in all the elaborateness of a silk gown, lined and trimmed with ermine, in his place, we are now blaming ourselves for ever having done so.

Mr Ghißbolm was sadly missed last \ week. Had he been in office there would have been a memorial service in sympathy with the American nation that would have again placed Dunedin in the forefront in all national questions. But poor Mr Denniston was lost. He hadn't the slightest idea what to do, and even when ie was suggested to him that he should follow Wellington's example and have a service on the Thursday he, after consulting one or two shopkeepers, - thought it better not ! No wonder they miss Chisbolm. Imagine that mighty patriot waiting for any shopkeeper ! It was really the citizens and the Government tbat saved us. At the desire of one of the papers the flag was flown from the Town Hall on. the Sunday, but it was only there for the Monday following although many private establishments and all Government offices kept theirs up till the day of the funeral. On this last day the bell tolled for an hour, but it was at the wish of the Government not as a result of the spontaneous act of the Mayor. These things are regrettable and show that something else than business knowledge is wanted for a chief citizen. *But Mr Denniston commenced badly. Everybody remembers his forgetting to go down to the railway to say " good-bye " to the Premier, and he has not shown that he has been qualifying himself since for such a splendid bit of plate as that now exhibited in Hislop (the jeweller's) window for presentation to our worthy exMayor. About £175 has been collected for this gift ; £50 of it is to be spent on a painting of the great patriot himself, which will be hung on the walls of the Council chambers so that future genera- ' tions of would-be mayors may be ! brought there to gaze, by longing, ambitious parents, upon the features of one who nearly saved* the Empire. In fact if speaking could have done it, or getting up early in the morning and letting off crackers in his front garden without stopping to take off his pyjamas why, then, Mr Chisholm saved it time and again.

The balance of the £175 is for a service of silver plate. Not, of_ oourse, a breakfast, tea, dinner and chamber service but just a ladies' afternoon gossip and scandal service consisting of salver, tea pot, cream jug, sugar basin, and, I think, a coffee pol, all to he in solid silver, hall-marked, stamped and sealed, monogram in big letters and weighing more ounces than I weigh pounds,

Well, we have muoh to be thankful for. Mr Chisholm has deserved it. I don't like to think of what might have happened if Mr Chisholm had been born anything else than a Scotchman who came to Dunedin to make money out of English and Irishmen. May his success be such that he will never have to melt his silver and sell it to a male relation, and may his smile oontinue to expand with the onooming years. T can't say anything better than that even il the smile &088 get too large for the face.

Dunedin, in a moment of enthusiasm — some months ago — went and bought a few shaky wooden cars, some score or two horses and a lot of old iron all of

I whioh were satirically termed " the city tramways." Everyone was delighted at the bargain and the city councillors, led by Mr Chisholm, pleased that they had, at last, dons something drank wine, or water, and ate sandwiches at someone else's expense for an entire afternoon winding up with free rides up and down the main streets and singing " for we are all jolly good fellows which nobody in his sober senses would attempt to deny " until close on midnight at which hour the police interfered. , Soon after — the next day in fact — there was, of course, a headache and a reaction. They started in by giving the men a rise in pay and the men, by way of thanks, hauled them straightway into the qnagmire of conciliation and presented a demand for all sorts of pay and hours. Then they had trouble with their manager. i The latter wanted to run two lines and two salaries. The oity objected. Rows in committee. All manner of things said at street corners, 'fc You're another" hurled across the Council table j and right in the shadow of the very chair in which the great Chisholm erstwhile sat. Finally a resignation and an acceptance.

Then th«re were bickerings over the new electric (that is " proposed ") service. Hot and angry words again went to and fro, and as a resnlt we are as near the new system as ever we were any time during the last 12 months. And, last straw of all, the Conciliation Board suggest an award which would mean a further loss of £2,300, at least, to the service lam ineliced to think that the Council will not accept the award, I am also told that tho men won't either. And I further think that if the Arbitration Court confirm the award that the Council will then consider the question from two points — viz., shut down or raise fares. The traoiwaj committee will favor the former, the other concillorg will favor the latter in order to bring home to the public what is really meant by this tomfool industrial agitation to raise our wages at someone else's expense. But there are still other troubles. Mr Eunson says that the understanding when he entered the Council's service was so and so ; our old friend " Bobby Cheesholm " pays that it was so and so ; and as neither of these gentlemen is likely to beat a retreat we may, in the event of Mr Eunson going to Court for compensation, have a nice little nine days' gossip ahead of us, to say nothing of the bill that will have to be footed by that patient beast of burden, the ratepayer,

We can't possibly galvanise any life into the mining market. It is dead. Not even big returns mean business. In fact, as most people are so deadly anxious to quit on these big returns coming in the latter, if anything, really send the price down. Two things, however, have been clearly established by oar last two years' experience — (1) that gold ia to be got in payable quantities ; (2) that our methods of getting it have been characterised by ignorance and folly, for which, however, let it io justice be said, we have paid in hard cash. There is another phase of the question though which has not yet come to the front but which musb do so shortly, and that is : Sow much longer will companies continue to keep dredges going that are only returning less than 20oz a week?

This is a matter tbat will have to be faced. Put briefly and blankly it is affirmed, in all seriousness, that np to the present time it is not the bulk of the shareholders who have made anything out of dredging but the dredgemen. For twelve months a couple of hundred men, at least, ancl indirectly many tradespeople, have been kept going by shareholders' whose dredges have only returned working expenses, and the question looming up, and all employes should give serious heed to it, is : how long will the shareholders continue to act as philanthropists ? Personally, I know some who are very tired of iO t and a big '* shut down " may, with some measure of justification, bo predicted.

Trade is bad in Dunedin. Shopkeepers are beginning to moan and we may be sure tbat their moans only reflect* the spirit that is abroad. Rents still continue ridiculously disproportionate to salaries and the hour for knocking them down and administering a series of " facers " has not yet arrived. But we long for it greedily. Meanwhile tbe grand opera at 6s, 4s, and 2s, is packed nightly, the fever having taken fairly hold of us. People wait outside from half-past 5 to 6 in order to get a 2s-seat, although there are not many of them as the management' are turning the majority into 6a stalls (a bare board with, or without, a back rest). Still the show ia worth it. I have seen nothing like it in the colony and with the exception of " great stars " (tbat is artists who take all the money and leave the ■others empty) the pieces are as well staged, played and sung as you conld wish them, or would get them in London or New York, except on rare occasions.

An Honest Medicine fob La. Grippe.

George W. Waitt, of Sooth Gardiner, TVTo. 7 sajrs : ' I have liacl the worst cough col<3, chiila and grip and have taken lota of trash of no account but profit to the vendor. Chamberlain's Cough Remedy is the only thing that has done any good whatever. I have used one bottle of it and the chills, cold and grip have all left me. I congratulate the manufacturers of an honest medicine.' For sale by R, S. Poison, chemist, Lawrence. Price Is 6d, big size 3s.