The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1913. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 8 October 1913, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1913. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

A little problem troubling the office bearers of the Hawera Chamber of Commerce is the apparent lack of interest in the institution on the part of the general public. Most townspeoplej even business people, are content to leave matters almost entirely to those who at some previous time have been elected officers, and while in a sense this may be complimentary to the occupants of office it is not a little, discouraging to t/hem to find that when a general meeting, or the annual meeting, is convened, the attendance' is comparatively small. . Some kindred institutions are in simlar case. In one instance, several attempts to get a meeting have resulted in the attendance being insufficient to constitute a quorum. Yet if any matter crops up affecting the trade or business interests of the town, the question arises, Where is the Tradesmen's Association? or the Chamber of Commerce? as the case lhay be. An institution which is expected to be alert when representative action is needed, ought to be encouraged and fortifed by something more than mere passive support from the people at large. Similar complaints are made in other iowns of the lack of interest in voluntary institutions. Many of these are born of enthusiasm, evanescent too often, and they soon wither away to lifelessness. But the fact that the discouraging experience in these matters is not confined to Hawera does not make it any the less regrettable here. An appeal will no doubt be made to people to "turn up" at the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, soon due, but such general appeals infuse no life. The maintenance of the civic spirit is needful for that. "We townspeople need to be inspired with the feeling that it is a duty and also a good thing in our individual interest and in our corporate capacity to support local institutions for the good they do or are capable of doing both to the individual and the town and district, and there is no reason at all, provided that too many calls are not made by ■unneces-sai-y meetings, why necessary meetings should not be a success.