THE Mount Ida Chronicle. SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1877.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 427, 23 June 1877, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle. SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1877.

In common with nearly every newspaper and district in Otago outside the modern Athens, we undoubtedly are possessed with chronic Dunedin—phobia. That this should be so is matter for the most sincere rsgret; that it js so is beyond dispute. The admission may be taken in mitigation of what we shall have to say in this article. The country districts in other Provinces are not so afflicted, if we except Timaru, and eveu Timaru spleen is slightly artificial and besides is general against all and everything not of Timaru. It were an idle truism to remark that the interests of the town and country are identical if it were not patent day after day that so far as the consideration of public thought in Dunedin and the Interior is concerned this self-evident truth is inadmissable. The Interior railway agitation gives a forcible "illustration of this. The Interior sees the immense benefit of the main central railway, which some day is to extend from the East Coast to the "West Coast, being based upon two feet —the one in Ghmtcburch and South Canterbury, the other in Dunedin and South Otago. Such dual basement must tend to the greatest prosperity of the Interior and therefore of Dunedin. Yet what have we

s eeH of late ? Every Dunedin channel of public opinion that has spoken out Has in so speaking shewn a clear intention if possible to deprive the city of the advantages to be obtained by the increased prosperity of the country. In the country, again, mueh has been said and written in a spirit of hostility to Dunedin that would have been well left unsaid and unwritten. The public bodies of Dunedin, with their petty jealousies and never-ending strifes in the interest of self and self's friends, are legitimate objects for sharp criticism, but no sane individual denies the important bearing upon the development of the country which a thriving town must have or conversely the stagnation in the country caused : by a depression of trade in the town. It is not so easy to account for this very unfortunate relationship between ; Otago town and Otago country. It ia perhaps easier to point out with some certainty what are not the causes than to lay the finger upon the ulcerating sore. ~\Ve are satisfied it is not jealousy of Dunedin, as is always asserted by that fair dame herself. If it were, there would not be that very general feeling of shame for Dunedin so noticeable of late since it has been fairly understood that despised Wellington, " the city of match-boxes," &, mere distributing port, is making great strides ahead of Dunedin in maritime commerce, while Dunedin herself attributes this to nothing but the noncompletion of a few coast railwaya, I which it is at the same time admitted tan never compete with the steamers now carrying on the same trade. Ic our opinion the Press must be charged with being the great cause of this evil. "We cannot remember the time when every person or thing hailing from the 1 country was not as smoke to the eyes or vinegar to the teeth to the editorial staffs of the ' Daily Times' and ' Evening Star' newspapers. In the opinion of many of the writers for those journals there exists a peculiar atmosphericpressure outside Dunedin, which induces sterility of intellect, gross selfishness, and all the vices, while within the town belt the purity of the municipal ether, equally as fish-diet, generates intelligence, honesty, self-sacri-fice, and patriotism that is beyond question. The country Press is not free from blame, far from it, but it has , not sinned to nearly so great an extent _aa the papers we have named, and is the more excusable inasmuch l as its writers do not pretend to be of that high and highly exalted class which delights to call itself "we" in Dunedin.

The hatred of Dunedin so common, in InvereargiU, Oamaru, Milton, and even in a minor degree on the Goldfields has been in great ? measure created by the inferior class of writers allowed alternately to write verses to Stella in the poet's corner, crib charades from the ' Young Ladies Journal/ write funny paragraphs for the ' Witness/ and on emergencies do sub-leaders for the ' Times * itself. Ifo matter how idle and unworthy of notice, is the word, it has the "stamp of print, and (such is the compliment paid to the printing press) is taken for gospel although the most transparent falsehood, while the truth in manuscript would be caviare to themultitude. But the Press alone is not to blame, unless we can suppose that such writings as have been alluded to have educated the heroes of the Chamber ol Commerce, who adopted an exactly similar strain at their long-delayed annual meeting of last week. Folly there walked by the wayside, and trumpeted to the world its name. Tet, felly as it is, when reiterated by the Press or from the platform day after day, week after week, and year after year, it has its effect in this at least, that what at first is looked upon with pity as the vanity of civic Bumbledom in speedy turn is regarded as pride afc all costs to be punished. If this ba in any measure true, what has made can unmake. Believing it to be true, we would in all seriousness advise, if we may be allowed to use such a word to powers so great, our Dunedin contemporaries and their managements to put a curb upon the pens of their young friends and not allow them to suppose that because they have been brought into casual contact with the gods' of Olympus they can therefore arrogate to themselves power divine to sneer and scoff at the more human elements in the country. The game at present being played is as ruinous to Dunediri as to the country.

It does not seem quite fair to ascribe the hi"!* price of wheat solely to the war, and lay tin* evil, as well as numberless others, at the door of the Turk. The,truth is that we are neglecting corn-growing in Otago. Fields that a few years- ago were all. covered -with com are now in permanent grass. " The grain-growing on the Waitaki has been receding further up the river; the cornfields this year near Oamaru being the exception and the grass paddocks'the rule. From. Palmerston to Oamaru a stubble-field is hardly to be seen. In Shag Talley and Waikcuaiti district the same slory can be told. The farmers say that the land wont go on year after year growing wheat. That is true cnoueh, but it is no reasou why wheat should be abandoned altogether. The lime seems to ha T e feme when high farming must be adopted in the old corn-laud districts, or com must be extensively grown further inland to make good the deficiencies and the increasing demand A large> quantify of corn has been grown in the boutk of Canterbury,- but that is all heme sent .North as fart as possible. Yerv little we fear, is being allowed to remain in the stack for spring local requirements. The system adopted now of thrashing on the field sh nment 6 shipment to the first purchaser. It is very *?£Xm feared - that bread *ai continue at a veiy high price .ior some time brcVw? lC V f this general harness of bread, local anils are being talked of as tracocaCOK;r;biliUes - m * ] ™ «**£& to commence operations at Black's, while the JoTri™ ° m \? U1 L We are Blad to learn, s not given up. Naeßby u a mi& backward ' fa

this movement for cheap bread. It would be a vory easy matter for the storekeepers of Masi>by to combine and havo their own flour ground at tlioir very doors. The water power on the flushing nice is ample, and there could be no objection to its being used for milling purposes. One site seems to havo been left by the Engineers on purpose, an excellent drop fairly inviting a water-wheel under it. Whatever may be dono in this respect, the farmers need not be afraid to put in wheat this year. No crop appears likely to be more directly profitable. Indirectly, if it is once established that the plains can grow prime wheaten flour, the future prosperity of all the farmors is assured, however hard, times may havo been iu the past.