SPEECH CUT SHORT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22289, 26 March 1947, Page 7

SPEECH CUT SHORT

OPENING OF COLLEGE MR. FRASER IN NORTHLAND (P.A.) WHANGAREI, March 26. A heavy shower of rain cut short the address of the Prime Minister, Mr P. Fraser, at an opening ceremony in the grounds of the Northland Agricultural and Technical College at Kaikohe yesterday morning. Mr. Fraser, who stood with a coat round his shoulders, declared suddenly and unexpectedly: “I think at this stage I had better declare officially open the Northland College.” The official party and spectators alike trooped into the building and Mr Fraser went on with his remarks in one of the classrooms. The shower was the third to come down during the ceremony. It was hailed by Mr E. T. Tirikatene, member for Southern Maori, as being: “a blessing from Heaven sent on very high and distinguished official occasions.” He added: “We have been united by one of those christenings which come and go. It is in the best traditions of the Maori race that such things should come to pass. We have sat at the dawn of the time when Maori and Pakeha people shall dwell together on these shores as one great people.” Mr Fraser said he hoped that the college would provide opportunities for the Maori children of the north and for pakehas equal to those being given in the great sc.hools at Feilding and elsewhere. He looked on the setting up of the Northland College as completing one of the greatest strides in New Zealand education-