The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1882. TIMARU STEAM COLLIER COMPANY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 981, 22 July 1882, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, JULY 22, 1882. TIMARU STEAM COLLIER COMPANY.

Timaru certainly has never shown any extraordinary enterprising spirit. As Mr Gibson pointed out the other evening, they have allowed enterprises to grow up on either side of them while they sat calmly down and looked on, without making the slightest effort to

keep pace with their neighbors. The result is that woollen factories and other industries are about to be started immediately both in Ashburton and Oaraaru, and in consequence of this. Ximaru must take a back seat for years in the matter of such local industries. For Timaru to have started a woollen factory when it was mooted some time ago would have been a splendid thing ; to start it now would, we think, be a mistake. Woollen factories will not succeed if one is started in every town, and therefore it would not be wise .for Timaru to start one for the present. It has allowed the opportunity to pass by, and it efinnot very well make an opportunity now, and will have to sit down and muse on the enterprise of the people whose energies are pushing less favored localities ahead. Timaru, however, is waking up to a sense of its own interests. A few weeks ago a few citizens met and resolved to form a Steam Collier Company with a capital of £IO,OOO, in £SO shares. In about week’s time the whole of the money was subscribed, and the company is now floated. MrD.M, Ross, we believe, was the principal mover in this enterprise, and it is to his credit that the company has been so expeditiously floated. Mr T. K, Macdonald, who occupied in Wellington the position of Land and Estate Agent, etc,, the same as Mr D. M. Ross does in Timaru, succeeded in starting a great many companies, with the result that he enriched himself, while he was a benefactor to Wellington, and in some cases to the colony. Mr Ross has now as good a field in Timaru as Mr Macdonald had in Wellington, and if he only puts his shoulder to the wheel he would, we believe, be as successful. We have to congratulate the people of Timaru on the spirit of enterprise which has started up in their midst, and trust that as they have begun so well they will not rest contented with what they have started. If they want a field for enterprise let them inquire into the resources of this district, and they will find the best clay for pottery works in the colony, coal and lime in abundance, building stone immensely superior to Oamaru, and other sources of weslth—needing only capital to develop them as well as water power to turn machinery. They need not grieve over the woollen factory ; there are a great many more enterprises open to them, and as Timaru must of necessity be the depot of all the produce of Can-

terbury its people should bestir themselves in developing , its resources. We are sorry to find them so backward in starting industries, but there can be no doubt that their apparent lack of energy is more due to the fact that matters have never been put properly before them, than to want of enterprise. The eagerness with which they have taken up shares in the Collier Company proves this, and it also proves that they need very little pushing to make them go in heartily for anything that is likely to succeed. They deserve credit for the manner in which they have taken up the present enterprise, but it is a remarkable tact that the great organ of South Canterbury has scarcely one word of praise or encouragement to give them. It is a remarkable fact that the Timaru Herald has scarcely ever deigned to take any notice of, or encourage in any way whatsoever, the development of local industries in Timaru, and there can be no doubt that a good deal of the apathy of its inhabitants is due to this. That journal is eternally hammering away at Sir George Grey, Egypt, the Czar of Russia, or some other question of mighty import, but it can never condescend to look to the wants of its immediate surroundings. Every other paper in New Zealand pays particular attention to the importance of fostering local but the great thunderer of South Canterbury is too high and mighty to bother with such petty matters. This we believe has had a great deal to do with the apathy of the people, but we trust now that they have awakened to a sense of their wants they will not rest satisfied with what they have done, but will go on in the same energetic way that they have begun.

LOCAL ENTERPRISE. One matter came out at the Steam Collier Company’s meeting in Timatu recently. Mr Gibson said that Kaiapoi was a deserted village a few years ago, but now there were between 600 and 700 men employed there in the woollen factory, and it was growing into a prosperous and busy town. This is a matter for owners of house property in this town to reflect upon. If they had an institution employing 600 or 700 men in their midst there would not be an empty house here, and the rents would be far higher that they nr -> now. Besides, what life such an array of men would infuse into the place, and what impetus they would give trade and commerce. If the paper mill had started it would have employed a large number of men, and other enterprises weuld have risen up with it, and the town would have gone ahead. The starting of a company for the cultivation of linseed is being mooted now, and we sincerely trust that when it is brought before the people they will consider the great good it would do the town, and give ic all the support they can. We shall have more to say on the subject another time.