The Evening Star MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3410, 26 January 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 1874

The Corporation of Dunedin are in a difficulty. They remind one of a young heir, suddenly encumbered with a large property, with the use of which lie is unacquainted. He would like to let it to the best advantage, but cannot spare it, because it is wanted for other purposes. What do the Corporation mean to do with their reserves? What is the end and purpose for which they were placed under their control? Was it not that they should be utilised for piiblic purposes? Yet no matter what proposition is made for the beneßt of the Town, it is opposed On most untenable grounds. A fourth district school is much needed, and the Provincial Government is prepared to erect a building that shall be ornamental and useful: to spend, in fact, a large sum of money for a training and district school. No other site is nearly,so suitable as the old Hospital ,Heserve. It is central and easily accessible in all weathers. But there is a party who on very intelligible grounds oppose appropriating that site for the purpose, and who, apparently, would rather see Dunedin without a school than allow it to be built there. 1 Luckily the spring of this opposition is too transparent to deceive anyone. It is attempted to- withhold the land with the view of continuing to make it a market, where by certain hotel properties would be en hanced in value. Such a system of subordinating public to private advantage should be nipped in the bud. It is "the germ which, unchecked arid aliowi 3d to develop, tends to grow into a 0 ’ammany ring. We trust, however, public opinion will be too strong, amd will be expressed too decidedly ever to allow, corruption of that sort here.' Next came the question of tbti North Dunedin Post-office: a boon to the large population inhabiting the .Northeast Yalley. Had the Premier, wben he was here, asked for a site suitiabLe for the building, what reply was the Corporation prepared to make? There is plenty of suitable land in Gr eat King street: land unoccupied near t’be Police Station, near the North Dunedin School, and on the fenced ground of the Caledonian Society. It is not bringing in any revenue, nor is it likely to do so if the principle is acted aipon of dismissing useful tenants such as the Chinese, without any definite application of the land to more usoful purposes. A post-office will be a great boon, and would have been cheaply purchased at the cost of a few square yards from one or other of those not very useful properties; but the Corporation are unwilling to meet the Government. One Councillor very coolly says the Government niay buy a piece of suitable land; another proposes to destroy the value of the postoffice by placing it on the Town Bfllt. The first proposition is equivalent to saying, “We are quite willing to take every farthing possible out of the public revenue, and to have all done for us at the public expense. The country may bear the burden for our advantage, but we will not help to sustain it by lifting a finger. As to placing a post-office outside the City boundary, one cannot but feel surprised that any one could propropose such a thing, even in joke. A post-office to be extensively useful should be central for a district. What benefit would it be to people in the neighborhood of Frederick street or Peliqket Bay , to have a post-office outside the town boundary ? They would be just as well off with the post-office where it is. The only people who would profit by it would be those living in the North-East Valley, a short distance up North George street and King street, with the few cross streets in that neighborhood. But the General Government would not consent to be made simpletons of in that way. They propose what would be a great convenience to a large population; and the City Council meet them with a proposition that looks like ridicule. This i« not the way to conduct business so important. The speeches made by the opponents to giving a site contained no reason for the conclusion arrived at. They sounded something like “X do not know what to do to avoid losing my popularity.” As usual with persons who seek popularity by trimming, they did exactly the wrong thing. Luckily for North Dunedin, the matter has l«en summarily ’settled, without the City Council. The General Government has done better for us than our civic

dignitaries, and has relieved them from the difficulty of exercising a little common sense—a great relief, no doubt.