PRIME MINISTER'S "HOLIDAY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 17, 20 January 1934, Page 8

PRIME MINISTER'S "HOLIDAY."

For obvious reasons the people have not seen much of the Prime Minister in the past year or two, and he has seen less of them than he should have as head of the Government. Pressure of duties has held him in Wellington, leaving little time to travel about, and his attention has been fully taken up with the urgent affairs of the country. Now, however, that the opportunity has come to relax, it is to be hoped he will be permitted to make the best use of it; his tour should not be marred by excess of deputations. The greatest kindness citizens can do the Prime Minister is to leave him alone. It is the informal chat, the meeting with small groups of citizens, that will do most to bring him into close touch with public feeling, besides being much more pleasant than listening to formal requests made in too many words; and it is in friendly discussion that he will learn most and will be able to talk most freely. The early part of the tour will be around the South Island, where he will find that the rise in wool has had a tonic effect on confidence and the spirit of the farmer. Auckland has felt less benefit from the improvement in wool, because sheepfarming is less important here, and it is a recovery in butter that is most needed to cheer the people of the North. Mr. Forbes will not expect to find that the farmers everywhere are in buoyant spirits again, but he should see enough to convince him that everyone is looking forward to a brighter future,-and that resolution, is. still -strong.