The Globe. TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 895, 8 May 1877, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, MAY 8, 1877.

Alas poor Dunedin! even the Hon. George McLean has been forced into speaking some rather plain truths regarding her pretensions. A numerous deputation from the Chamber of Commerce waited on him on Saturday last for the purpose of urging on the Government the necessity of promptly completing the lines north and south of that city, so as to join Dunedin with North Otago and Canterbury on the one hand, and with Southland on the other. Judging from the report, the deputation must have urged the claims of Dunedin to [commercial preeminence in rather forcible language, and to have elicited an equally warm rejoinder from the Minister. He gave them to understand that however eager Government were to complete the main lines, if they had the means, they were not going to be bounced by the commercial magnates of Dunedin into ruining the credit of the colony in order that the supremacy of that city might be maintained. It Avould of course be the duty of the Government, he said, to complete those lines which only required the permanent way, or were near completion, in order to "render them reproductive as soon as possible. When they could borrow at satisfactory rates they would of course go into the money market for the purpose of completing the authorised railways. But till they could do so, the Government were not disposed to be pushed into the position of getting the colony into a mess. Not content however with showing the deputation the impossibility of complying with their demands, Mr McLean had the temerity to tell his fellowcitizens of Dunedin, that those portions of the provincial district of Otago not yet connected by railway with Dunedin, had excellent outlets for their trade at Oamaru and Lyttelton on the north, and at the Bluff in the south. This was surely adding insult to injury. To have received such a home thrust from a member of the Ministry residing in another province a void d have been galling enough, but to be told by the Hon. G. M‘Lean this humiliating fact must have been bitterness indeed.

The deputation, however, had not far to seek for an explanation of this alleged neglect of Dunedin’s interests by the Government. It was because they had been provincial in their politics that the railway had not been pressed on with vigor. Had the citizens of Dunedin been warm supporters of the Ministerial measures, they would, they hint, have found their lines in a more advanced state. In spite of the condition of the money market, we are led to suppose, that the funds would have been found at any cost, for making Dunedin the centre of the trade of the South Island. This insinuation shows the low standard by which our public men are measured by the Dunedin mercantile community. Unfortunately, for the credit of the colony, it has become too common of late to charge Ministers with all kinds of corruption. Members of the House of Reproscnta-

tives have been equally guilty in this respect. During the last session several most disgraceful scenes were witnessed in consequence of this most reprehensible practice. Of course the charge made by the deputation from the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce does not credit Ministers with personal corruption, but it indicates a state of mind ever ready to seek for an explanation of the conduct of our public men in a low, rather than a high and honorable motive. Had those Dunedin gentlemen not been blinded by party prejudice, they should have seen that there were plenty of excellent reasons why the railways of the colony should not he pushed ahead with great vigour just now. As business men, they know as well as as Ministers do, that before those lines can be completed more money must be raised, and the present is a most undesirable time for going into the money market. These facts should have satisfied them, that in keeping out of the market, the Ministers had the best interests of the Colony at heart.