The Provincial Government deserve also credit for their liberal efforts to add permanent structures in the adornment of the town. To this period is due the erection of the Custom House, the present Post Office and Court House, and the Provincial buildings and Council Hall, the Colonial Bank (built for the Post Office), all of which, although not finished, were in hand. Then in memory of the first Superintendent the Cargill Monument was erected in the centre of the Octagon, but afterwards removed to its present site, so that the straight line of the street might be obtained. Perhaps the most plucky venture of all was the Dunedin Exhibition, the foundation stone of the building being laid masonically on 17th February, 1864. The idea was at first considered quite beyond the means of the province and premature. The result proved differently, as it was a complete success. The building is now used as the Hospital.
This may well be called the transition period of the town. The sudden emergence from almost rural simplicity and quietness into unwonted energy and bustle, occasioned many anomalies. The most of the business establishments were temporary in character, and have since been almost all swept away, and others of a more permanent nature occupy their place; in many instances, too, the characteristics of the locality have been changed. Formerly Stafford-street and Walker-street were the busiest of the busy; now they are greatly deserted.
How has the Town Board been progressing during this time? Certainly not satisfactorily, for on 13th April, 1865, an ordinance was passed by the Provincial Council dissolving it.
The authority which created it now pronounced its doom. And why? Either the members were not fit for the position, or perhaps the body had not a sufficiently honourable title for the Dunedin of the period!
The Town Board may also have accomplished its temporary purpose, and was erased to make room for a new order. Let it be here recorded that in eleven short years afterwards the Provincial Government followed to the same bourne, as in 1876 it was abolished by the Act of the Assembly. This uncalled-for Act has been disastrous, as the Council was verily a true nursing father to Dunedin.
