THE STATE PICNIC.

Evening Post, Volume LXV, Issue 69, 23 March 1903, Page 4

THE STATE PICNIC.

The discovery by tho Government that it will bo necessary to charter a Union Company steamship to accommodate the guests invited to attend the State picnic to the Cook Islands and Fiji offers alluring possibilities of enjoyment to many estimable persons of tho right colour who have unquestioned "claims upon the Government." If a Union steamship is to be chartered why not the Moeraki? It has paused into history that' the Premier, especially ft* Trea«ur«r t U in»

capable of spoiling the (ship for the traditional halfpenny-worth of tar, and why should he in this important matter go behind his magnificent record? Let him consider what splendid assuranco it would be to the London money market of tbo sincerity of bis expressed belief in tlio unassailable soundness of our finances. An expenditure of say, £10,000 on a Stato picnic would bo a suro guarantee of solvency though it pules before tho nnuual gift of tho Hon. Hull-Jonea of £100,000 to widows and orphans. And then consider how graceful a recognition might be hpvtowcd upon many earnest but unostentatious workers in tho cause of piugresnivo Government sometimes known as Reddonism. There are, for instance, (lio members of the Liberal and Labour Federation, of which the Premier is the distinguished President, and to whom subscriptions may bo sent; the liulios of tho Women's Social and Political League; the promoters of tho National Pin-He; tho Natives who pray that Mr. Reddon may bo Governor over ur, and many others "too numerous to mention." If tho thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well, nnd the Premier is ju«t doini; things uncommonly well. I n Torannki ho liiifl just dispensed a new railway, nnd at Cheviot a collphbuo has proposed that £100,000 a year shall be bestowed upon widows and orphans, then why not a mere bagntollo of, say, £10,000 for the entertainment of thoso who by theii loyal support of Scddonism havo made thus munificence, possible?