The Hawera Star. TUESDAY. FEBRUARY 8, 1927. ARRANGEMENTS FOR ROYAL VISIT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 8 February 1927, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

TUESDAY. FEBRUARY 8, 1927. ARRANGEMENTS FOR ROYAL VISIT.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’clock in Hawera,, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa Eltham, Mansratoki, Kaponga, Alton Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley, Mokoia. Wliakamara, Ohangai, Meromere. Fraser Road and Ararata.

It is exactly four weeks since a meeting was held in Hawera to make arrangements for the reception of the Duke and Duchess of- York, who will arrive in this town in three weeks' time. Those who attended that meeting were appointed a committee to organise the public welcome to be accorded their Royal Highnesses, but so far the public has not been given any information as to the way in which preparations are shaping themselves for the great occasion. The first, and, so far as anything is known :to the contrary, the last public meeting did little more than endorse the tentative programme submitted by the Minister of Internal Affairs. That programme provides for a stay of ten minutes at Hawera by. the Royal visitors and party, and limits the proceedings to the presentation of an address of welcome on a platform to be erected, outside the railway station. At the meeting several suggestions were put forward regarding a guard of honour, the assembling of the school children, and the attendance of Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, returned soldiers, cadets and territorials, but to date nothing further has been heard of the fate, of those suggestions. Those who undertook the responsible task of making the arrangements are. deserving of the thanks of the whole community, but the public would be very niggardly in its thanks if it failed to respond to the lead given by those public-spirited citizens and did not support them by a display of interest keener than anything which has been shown up to the present. It would be of value, if only in the direction of testing public interest, if the committee were heard from again within a day or two and an announcement made stating how far the organisation of the reception had gone. Complaints have been made that the public is apathetic, and the reason given by some for such a state of mind towards so important an occasion is the inadequate time allowance for the ceremony. Ten minutes is a very brief space of time for a community of many thousands to demonstrate their loyalty to the Throne through a welcome to the King’s son. The difficulties that .beset the authorities in arranging an itinerary which will allow the greatest number to see the Royal visitors in the short space of time they will be in the' Dominion can be appreciated, .but it has to be borne in mind that on, the day Hawera will be not a town of some 5000 souls, but the southern portion of a large and populous province. It is natural that the citizens should feel disappointed at being restricted to a brief ceremony in the least prepossessing portion of the town when they have within easy reach gardens and park which would provide an ideal setting for the gathering; but it is to be hoped that no sense of injury to their civic pride will cause them to take a gloomy view of the possibilities of the ceremony arranged to take place, at the railway station; it is certain that no such consideration will weigh with the harassed officials whose duty it is to arrange the itinerary. But an aspect which should weigh with everybody, individuals, officials and local bodies alike, is the absolute necessity for making adequate provision for the children at the gathering. We know that the greatest and most lasting benefit to be derived from the Royal visit will come from the impressions left upon the mind of the younger generation. The present adult generation has proved its loyalty and has demonstrated that it realises the significance of the Dominions’ attachment to the throne. There is not the slightest doubt that the children of to-day will continue in the steps of those who have won for the Dominion a reputation as a people of intense devotion to the Royal Family and all its members stand for, but to the, children March 3rd will present what may be the last opportunity in the lives of many of them to see members of that family, and for that reason the citizens of to-morrow must be given every reason for looking upon that date as a red letter day. An adequate display of the very real interest the people, young and old, have in the Sovereign’s son cannot be made within the time, and more particularly at the place, which the time limit, makes necessary as the site of the reception to the Duke and Duchess. It is probably already too late to obtain sanction for the extension of the time allotted from ten to twenty minutes, but if anything is to be done it should be done quickly and the interest and influence of those who represent the districts in Parliament should bo secured at once. Probably a photograph of the locality where the reception is to take place, and a plan showing the distance to the. gardens by car. would move the authorities to granting an, extension of time, if not from an appreciation of the limitations of tho station site from an aesthetic point of view, then perhaps out of consideration for the town and country children, who, under the present arrangements have to be accommodated along with some thousands of the public in an area which is inadequate for more than a few hundreds.