The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 20, 1901. THE ROYAL VISIT.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 86, 20 April 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 20, 1901. THE ROYAL VISIT.

We have no desire to utter a word that might tend to depreciate the enthusiasm that will be displayed in connection with the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall to the colony. It is well that there should be such enthusiasm, and that the colony, having invited the Royal visitors, should do its part well in making the visit a pleasant one. But surely some people are losing their mental balance over the matter, and a bill is being worked up that will stagger the settlers who have long been crying out for assistance in the country. The Rotorua reception, for instance, has evidently been outlined in a way that will mean an enormous expense to the taxpayers. There is a ferment all along the Coast on the part of the Maoris, and goodness only knows liow many it is intended to ship from this district to Rotorua. One gentlejpan whose opinion can be accepted with some authority on such matters informs us that the natives expect that a thousand of their number will be taken ; but it seems tolerably certain that over a hundred will go at the expense of the public. Now, we do not object to the natives being given a good time, and their presence would no doubt highly please the Duke and Duchess, but it is surely time to ask what the poor pakeha has been doing that he is to be left out in the cold, or must defray his own expenses if he requires a jaunt to welcome the visitors. When the Minister of Lands was in this district the other day he met all requests for help by the statement that it was a matter of funds, and yet we learn of extensive preparations being made for the Rotorua gathering; of an expenditure being entailed that would go far towards remedying the grievances of those who have to do so much towards the making of the colony fit to bear taxation. Still, if it must be, and these expenses are considered absolutely necessary, would it not be fair to give more than the Maoris a chance of a free trip to Rotorua ? There are many people in Gisborne who would like to go if they could afford the money, and though it may not be part of the duty of a democratic Government to give free trips for such a purpose, still they might be given a fair share of whatover is going. Perhaps we are wrong in assuming that the natives will be given free trips, but from what the natives themselves say, that is what is expected, and they think they have a grievance in that all who like cannot take advantage of such a trip.