The Globe. WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 1878.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1427, 11 September 1878, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 1878.

The completion of the through lino to Dunedin not only marks an era in tho general prosperity of tho colony, but also, as we take it, will have an effect upon its general political history in the future. By means of it two powerful and extensive districts comprising nearly the whole of tho South Island are brought into intimate relations one with another. They will now see that it is to their interest to coalesce and to work togother for their common good, instead of as hitherto acting as enemies, and viewing with suspicion every overture to friendship. The comparative ease with which the journey can now be accomplished, and tho shortening of the time occupied thorein, will induce a freer interchange of visits. Tho residents of each city, by mixing with and becoming acquainted with those of the other, will forget those little animosities, those provincial jealousies which have so long estranged tho two districts. The cause of them—Provincialism—is happily a thing of the past. We are now one nation from the Bluff to Auckland, and we should be prepared to look upon matters affecting our interests from a broader and more national point of view. His Excellency the Governor, in his speech at Dunedin, made a very happy point in calling the attention of his audience to the fact that whatever their distinctive nationality might be, they were now New Zealanders. We apply, tho same argument, and say that the time has now come when we must forget that wo belong either to Canterbury, Otago, Wellington, or Auckland, and remember only that we are New Zealanders, and that to us has been committed tho high and noble task of laying the foundations of a nation which one day will be tho pride of the southern seas. The extension of the railway will be one efficient aid to enable this to bo done. Wherever the railway penetrates, people will be brought out of their isolation, and tho narrow, selfish views which naturally follow upon it. They will, by mixing with pooplo from other parts, learn to take a less contracted and more cosmopolitan view of things, and to look upon subjects under discussion not as to whether they individually will derive great benefit from any particular course, but whether tho general body will do so. Such, we believe, will be tho result of the great event which has so fittingly been celebrated. But, as we have said regarding the two great provinces of the South, we believe it will have a still more important bearing upon tho history of the colony. Between Otago and Canterbury growing up out of mutual misunderstandings—there has always been, not war, but what is very near to it, armed neutrality. They hav& each stood on the defensive, watching with eager eyes the actions of each other. The result has been that these actions have all been coloured with tho tinge of jealousy. Hence the power which they together might use in tho Assembly for the good of both, and the colony at largo, has been neutralised and rendered nugatory by this very feeling. The North has not been slow to take advantage of this. Tho membors from that part of the colony know well that if Otago and Canterbury unite, the chance of their having so much their own way as has been the case is gone for ever. Hence their role has been to stimulate tho jealousies and misunderstandings which have arisen between the two great districts o£ tho South. Whilst uncertain and disagreeable travelling was the only means of communication between the two their task was easy. But it should, and we hope will, bo very different now. The clouds of mistrust and suspicion which so long lowered between Otago and Canterbury, will melt away before the influence of railway communication. We shall learn to respect and esteem each other, to bo lenient and forbearing with each other's foibles, and to see that our interests are so intimately bound up and connected with each other, that to stand ranged on opposite sides is a proceeding fraught with calamitous results to both. Tho two groat districts of the colony, united politically and socially, as they are practically by what Mr. Blair called the " thin black lines of civilisation," will do more towards tho advancement of the colony as a whole than anything which has yet taken place. By such an alliance the prosperity of both districts must be enhanced. This being tho case, tho whole colony must benefit as the prosperity of one portion of it—and so considerable a one too —of necessity will benefit the whole. Such are the effects which wo trust and boliovo will be produced by tho great event which has just been cousummated. In a few short, weeks tho whole of this portion of tho South Island, from Amborley to the Bluff, will bo brought, into communication, and tho good results of such au event cannot bo over-estimated,

Now that wo aro one, and that the many misunderstandings and misconceptions which have existed liavo hem swept away by tho completion of through railway communication, let us hope that a new era will begin. We trust to see tho members for Ota go and Canterbury standing side by sido on tho great questions which will affect both materially, remembering that the last spark of Provincialism and potty local boundaries has been crushed out by the iron horse, and that in its place has arisen a now, a fresh, and a glorious phase of their national history as a united people.