Wellington Independent WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3148, 15 March 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 1871.

On the result of the meeting to-day about the Patent Slip the immediate future of Wellington will greatly depend. Its issue will accurately determine the amount of public spirit among us, at least how much our leading merchants, tradesmen, and capitalists are willing to inconvenience themselves for the good of the city and the province. It will also be a fair test of the amount of commercial enterprise Wellington can boast of, for no one can for a moment doubt that the money cast upon the waters in the form of a patent slip will be found again, and that not after many days. Above all it will be either an unmistakable exposition of a determination on the part of our hitherto divided citizens to sink all past differences in a common attempt for the utilisation of our harbor, or a wretched display of party jealousies and antipathies that will accept no good unless it comes through the detested channels of an obnoxious party. We hope for the credit of the city that the meeting will be eminently successful, and that the decisions arrived at will eventuate ere long in providing those facilities for the cleaning and repairing of ships without which our raagnificeut harbor is comparatively lost. Sure we are that a patent slip will be so success ful that a dock will quickly follow, and a dock once constructed means the making of Wellington the terminus for the San Francisco service, and the headquarters of a naval squadron. We do not say a word against a floating dock, or a graving dock ; but we say that when (as we trust will be shown at the meeting to-day) about £5000 is all that requires to be raised here for securing a slip and removing for ever the record of past bickerings so long lying in Evan's Bay, we would be acting in a manner unworthy of ourselves, and unmindful of those who will come after us, if we did not make a supreme effort to raise the necessary funds. Bad colonists, and bad business men will we be if we neglect this golden opportunity. Never, we believe, was the prospect of the long-talked-of patent slip so near and clear, and never before in the history of Wellington was there an occasion demanding so much unanimity, public spirit, and forgetfulness of " the wretched past." Let no one imagine the undertaking will benefit only the mercantile classes. It will be a source of employment directly to many trades, and indirectly (by the increase of expenditure necessarily created by it) it will increase business of every kind. As the benefit will be for all, so it is the duty and interest of all to help in its accomplishment. We trust therefore that the meeting will be largely attended, and the promoters gratified by seeing their proposals readily accepted by those who have capital to invest, and heartily applauded by those who can only give them the encouragement arising from the sympathy of numbers, and from the grateful recognition of their efforts by the largest and most interested section of their fellow-citizens. We understand that the promoters intend to make the value of the shares £10, and we can scarcely imagine any one engaged in business refusing to take at least one share. If a movement begun on so popular a basis does not succeed in bringing all the citizens together as one man to support it, then we may bid farewell "to all our greatness." What signifies the soundness of our political creed, or the energy with which we may try to get it generally adopted if we refuse our assistance to an object so well calculated to enhance our material prosperity ? Compared with this practical question, a great many questions that have lately occupied our mind, sink into utter insignificance. Political reform is all important in its way, but a patent slip for Wellington's worthy of greatersaerifices, as it is the precursor of more immediate and substantial advantages. The result of the meeting to-day, taken in connection with the proceedings of the Provincial Council reported elsewhere, will show who are the really progressive men among us — who are the genuine reformers. If on this question the public of Wellington rally round the standard of practical progress, it will augur well for our advancement in the future. The meeting will then have answered its immediate purpose, and it will have done far more, it will have created among us a strong intelligent public feel-

ing in favor of the development of our resources, which will swallow up all the party animosities and personal antipathies that have hitherto divided us as a community, and marred the success of every undertaking for the common good.