A MINISTERIAL VISIT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 109, 10 May 1909, Page 3

A MINISTERIAL VISIT.

o THE PREMIER AT KAIKOURA. The Prime Minister (Sir Joseph Ward) and party went to Kaikoura in the Government steamer Tutanekai on Saturday for the purpose of opening a new wharf. The party was welcomed by Mr. F. J. Monk (chairman of the Kaikoura City Council), and Mr. Forbes, M.P. for 'Hurunui. The Kaikoura Mounted Rifles formed a guard of honour. The wharf was duly declared open by the Prime Minister. It has substantial foundations, the piles being sunk in holes drilled in the solid limestone. There is « depth of lift 6in at low water Afterwards, the party was entertained at lunch, and tnen taken for a Jong and interesting drive down the coast In the evening a "social" was held in honour of the Prime Minister, who was presented with a handsome silver salver a& a mark of appreciation by the settlers of his services to the country in the late naval crisis. The presentation was made by the chairman of the County Council,' who said it was. intended to mark appreciation of him as a statesman second to none in Great Britain's oversea dominions. (Applause.) In replying, Sir Joseph Ward referred to the enthusiasm with which New Zealand's offer of a Dreadnought was greeted in England, remarking that the telegram was read by the Prime Minister (Mr. Asquith) in the House of Commons, and there were many sti iking indications of how the offer had touched the hearts and fired the imagination of the people of the Motherland. It was, he went on to say, extraordinary that though we had a, Press Association there was nothing in the newspaper cables about the way in which the offer of the news was received in England, nothing of the extraordinary enthusiasm displayed by the people of the laudatory tone of the British press. There mu&t be something radically wrong about an organisation towards which tho whole of the cress of the Dominion was paying when h apparently wilfully ignored the enthusiasm which was of such deep interest to the people of New Zealand. He wished to say without reservation that New Zealand ought to make provisions for an independent press cable service of London news, to be distributed all over the country and sent over the Pacific cable. IHa was directing public attention to this matter because the Dominion wanted fail play, and an impartial system which would attend to the . requirements of every section of the community irrespective of its opinions.