THE Grey River Argus, PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1887.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5804, 27 January 1887, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus, PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 1887.

The people of Hokitika— if the Times may be regarded as an exponent of their views —consider that they have been Blighted in a somewhat contemptuous manner over the Midland Railway banqnet. Speaking before the event, the morning paper said, " Despite the strongly expressed wish of the heads of the Midland Railway Company, the celebration on Monday will be principally a Greymouth »ffair." Our contemporary then went on to say that not more than half a dozen invitations had been received in Hokitika, and tha fc altoghther not more than 10 or 12 went south of the Teremakau. The cold shoulder was also anticipated for Westport and Reefton, and judging from thefoutsiders who atteided we shb'iiid^ say that the surmise was tolerably^ cornet- The" day of the banquet our contemporary said, "As we anticipated, very few persona left Hokitika to witness the turning of tfreP first sod of the Midland-Railway." The result to the whole district in general and. the Westland Land League in particular, . was so palpable that to go implies a want of self respect. If the Grey people hadgot up a demonstration and paid the cost, we should not have cavilled at any- 1 thing they did ; but thsy ■* werj only stewards for the company and the directors, who found themselves ignorant as to whom the invitations Bhould be sent, only during to nr-"e : .it a purely T7est Coast affa'w We cannot but lok upon the slight to the people south of the Teremakau as. aa intentional one." This is severe, but we regret to. have to admit that it is not entirely undeserved. There can be no doubt that if. those who gave the banquet r^hed it to be "a purely West Coast" affair," they were wofully disappointed^— that is, unless they consider Greymouth the West Coast. We wonld fain hope that there has been some grave misunderstanding between the committee of arrangement, Into whose hands the affair was given, and the representatives of the company and the contractors. The committee may hsve had no proper conception of how to carry out the delicate task entrusted to them, but we should be unwilling to accuse them of putting an intentional slight upon Hokitika. EV^m the indiscriminate way in which invitations were scattered right and left, the committee seemed to have a vague soft of idea that the banquet was to be merely representative of Greymouth. Unfortuna'aly, it was not even that. Many citizens eminently representative of the place from its eerliest days were passed over, while numbers of mere striplings and people of yesterday were oca 7'cuous — persons who never represented anything, who are never likely to represent anything but their noble selves. The representatives of the company and the contractors may be fairly charged with some of the blame if their, wishes were not conveyed to the committee so as cot to leave room for doubt ; but there Is no escape from the fact that the committee should have had a better idea of the fitness of things and what was due to the occasion than to leave themselves open to the- charge of having made it a purely Greymouth affair. In that respect the committee failed most signally. They might have remembered the fact that while Greymouth has the good fortune to be the terminus of the line, there had been less enthusiasm and less effort on behalf of the East and West Coast Railway here than in any other place interested in the great work. That knowledge should have helped totonedownany undue feelingof local pride at G'j&vncouih's position, and inclined t v em to re c?.cber with at least some degree of thank iulness the valuable services rendered by their neighbors in promoting a work in which all are so deeply interested, but none more than the people of Greymouth. After the way the affair has turned out, it is to be regretted that the givers of the banquet did not take counsel with some sensible and public spirited man, and carry out the affair themselves. If they had done their very worst they could not have failed more conspicuously or given more general dissatisfaction than the committee who made such a glorious bungle of the whole affair succeeded in doing ; because it may be some comfort to 1 our Hokitika friends to learn that even the Oreymouth people are not at all satisied with the w»y the affair was carried out.