ALEXANDRA

Dunstan Times, Issue 1014, 23 September 1881, Page 3

ALEXANDRA

Things are moving along in this district in their customary progressive manner. By some the word progressive may be taken exception to, but 1 use the phrase ad visodly, as, let the croakers—and it is very generally admitted that there are some in every corninanition, and join with those who are munity whose normal condition is croaking say what they will, the district as a whole is progressing; and if the croakers would cease their peevish whining, shake off their using their energies—mentally, physically, and monetarily—in pushing the district ahead, it would to a greater degree progress It has the advantage ot position, being on the main highway through the country; it is possessed of unbounded resources in the shape of minerals of every class, the which as yet have only been tickled ; and of motive power it is unexceptionally possessed, and to my mind it wants but the bringing into play of that latent energy that is possessed by, and is inherent in, ail AngloSaxons, to raise the district to as high a pinnacle as any could desire. Every credit has to bo given for what has been done, but still not a little of what could, has ever been attempted. What is wanted is a little more public

spirit, a little more solid assistance towards * the development of the resources, and a little loss of the expressions of good wishes —in fact, less sentiment, and more grease. Quartz reefs, antimony and cinnabar lodes, coal seams, and last but not least alluvial golden deposits abound, of greater nr lesser richness, and await but developing; and the question is—“ Are these sources of wealth to lie idle and unproductive 1 ” The main source of wealth is population, and to retain those who are already in the district, leaving alone causing an increase, some inducement must be held out, and that must take the shape of employment. In most of the mining centres prospecting associations are being formed, the business men contributing each a small sum weekly ; and in the chief centres other industries are being established, and it is as plain to me as noonday that unless a move be made in one or other of the directions indicated, our progress must stop. Some few public-spirited individuals with the aid of Dunedin capital have tackled one of the sources of wealth—the bed of the Molyneux—by the construction of expensive and powerful dredges, and the enterprise bids fair to be a remunerative one, and it will be a pity if others equally as promising are not made to yield their quota to our wealth and prosperity. Let those who have vested interests, and who must necessarily have the interests of the district at heart shake off their indifference, exhibit a greater spirit of goaheadism, and take a part in the fostering and developing of the magnificent resources that surround them on all sides.