The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning Saturday, October 19, 1889.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 366, 19 October 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning

Saturday, October 19, 1889.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’flt at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.’

MATTERS WORTH CONSIDERING. This morning a correspondent draws attention to a subject which is well worthy of consideration. Taken collectively Gisborne people are very modest —would it not be more correct to say careless ? — and they lose many of those little advantages which add to the prosperity of the place, from no other cause than a failure to attend to the matters in good time. As an example of this may be taken the question of the appointment of a Gisborne agent in connection with the Deeds Registry Office, to which we referred in our last issue.

But neglect in one case does not form a justification for it in another, and we hope that some action will be taken in regard to the suggestion made by our correspondent. He tells us no more than what must be recognised as truths that are plain to all, but the idea strikes us as original because no one has previously given expression to it. Unfortunately, there does not at present appear to be much prospect of getting the Union Company to alter the arrangements by which the boats call at this port on Sunday. The smug morality of the Napier people was sufficiently powerful to get the Sunday trade foisted on to Gisborne, which was too weak to make any stand against it, and our troubles in no way concerned the Napier people so l«ng as they got their own removed. Still there is no barm in approaching the Company on the subject, and seeking to have some new arrangement made. If some good does not lesult, at least no harm can be done, In regard to the steamer which arrives from Sydney on Friday, we feel certain that Mr Dougherty, the courteous agent of the Gisborne branch of the Union Company’s service, will be able and willing to make arrangements suitable to the occasion, if the subject is broached to him in a proper manner. In the summer time the last launch could always, we think, be delayed until about eight o’clock in the evening, except when the state of the tide makes that impossible. The Union Company is noted for the businesslike way in which all that concerns it is managed, and, if only from a strictly business point of view, a concession to the wishes of its clients might be expected. Anything that adds to the prosperity of this district must be an advantage to the Union Company. Our trade, unfortunately, is not at present as large as we could wish, but the place is so isolated that all our commerce must be sea borne. The Union Company-has the full control of all that is done along this portion of the Coast, and there are no railways to tap the trade, as is the case in connection with all the other ports with which the Union Company does business. It is, then, to the interest of that organisation to do everything it can do to increase the trade. Every new settler induced to make Poverty Bay his home can be (if he is worth having) reckoned a client of the Union Company, and if by inducing people who pass our shores to leave the vessel and have a look round the country, we can thereby ensure some of their number to take an interest in the place, the good will be indirectly to the benefit of the Union Company as well as to the district generally. If the Company were a mushroom one it might not be so, but as jt is the argument cannot be disputed, and a very good case could be made out so as to refer the attention of the Directors to the point that we urge. As we have stated, we believe Mr Dougherty would give every facility that could be expected in regard to the ordinary boat on Friday, and at least no harm can be done in urging upon the head officials of the Company the desirableness of having arrangements made so that the steamers could call in at Gisborne on some other day than Sunday, and in other respects to have every facility given so that through passengers might be induced to visit the place and have a look round tor a few hours. Within the next six months there ought to be a large passenger traffic past Gisborne. There is, of course, the Exhibition in Dunedin, and later on there will be big Jubilee celebrations in Auckland and Wellington. The majority of Ehose people who will be travelling will be just the class we want to attract. The cjuestion will be asked, whose duty is it to attend to these matters ? and our reply is that we think the Borough Council ought to give them their careful consideration. The Town Clerk, too, might be instructed to communicate with the Auckland office of an organisation which has lately opened branches in New Zealand —Cook's Tourist Agency—and suggest the advisableness pf an agent being appointed in Gisborne. Such a suggestion would in no way compromise the dignity of the Council, and it would prove that the people of the place have some energy in them. Many who ought to know better find some delight in poking the finger of ridicule at the place. The commanders of the Union Company's boats, for instance — men of much intelligence and whose word is relied upon by the passengers—seem to have very peculiar ideas of Gisborne and are not slow in expressing them. How they become possessed of such erroneous views is what puzzles us, for the gentlemen alluded to very seldom favor the town with a visit, and there |s certainly good reason why they should not if the place is nearly so bad as it is painted by some of them. The letter written by 11 Gisborne ’’ gives the thread of a wide range of thought, and we hope the matter will not be allowed to rest while there is a hope of any benefit accruing to the district.