The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1926. FARMERS’ EXCURSIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 7 May 1926, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, MAY 7, 1926. FARMERS ’ EXCURSIONS.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville, Paten, Wnverley, Kokoia, Whakamara, O.hangai, Meremere. Fraser Road and Ararata.

In a message which our Wellington correspondent telegraphed yesterday, dealing with a recent conference of heads of the Railway Department, mention is made of a new idea, shortly to be tried out, whereby farmers and others will be given “facilities for exchange of visits between their respective districts, as at show times.” The scheme is one which we would commend to the attention of the meeting to be held in Hawera, this evening, to discuss arrangements for the forthcoming Winter Show and carnival week in the town. We understand that the Railway Department, might be, persuaded to run a farmers’ show excursion, even, from as far afield as, say, the Waikato, if South Taranaki showed any sign of taking up the suggestion with enthusiasm. The success which attended tho annual conference of the National Dairy Association in Hawera last winter was a credit to all concerned —not the least to the general body of citizens—and, if the organisation which was set in motion to receive and: entertain the delegates of that body could be made to function again, ‘in the event of the visit of three, or four hundred farmers and business men from the sister dairying district of South Auckland, their excursion to South Taranaki would long remain a pleasant memory to the strangers. A true story is being told at present of a high executive officer in one of the Government departments, who was detailed to visit Hawera in connection with some organisation work recently. When, he broke the news to his family, the three daughters of the household —two of them attending a Wellington secondary school, and the other hoping to do so next year—entered into a spirited argument regarding the exact location of their Dad’s destination. After an animated discussion they reduced the possibilities to two —Hawera was either in Hawke’s Bay or the South Island. They could not quite decide which! Now, that is a reflection upon the

teaching of New Zealand geography in tlie schools more than on the merits' of this district; but the fact that such ignorance is possible emphasises the folly of passing by any opportunity to make more widely known the advantages and attractions of this part, of the Dominion. We do not counsel anything in the way of exaggerated “boosting’’; but we suggest that a community which refuses to exert itself to attract and. interest visitors from other parts of the country is more dead than alive —and fully deserving of the worst fate that, may be in store for it. Business people, as well as farmers and the show authorities, should be interested in this latest proposal from the Railway Department, and we are hopeful that some of them may be ready to give a load to public opinion this evening.