SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1901. THE RECEPTION MUDDLE. Too many Cooks Spoiling the Broth.

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 49, 8 June 1901, Page 8

SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1901. THE RECEPTION MUDDLE. Too many Cooks Spoiling the Broth.

THE latest incident m the series of squabbles, bickerings, and cross-purposes that have marked the reception arrangements from the outset is a shortage of funds It appears that the Reception Committee delegated to a sub-committee the duty of carrying out a scheme of decorations in the city. For this purpose a sum of £500 was placed at its disposal This amount has been disbuised, and the sub-committee wants another £200 to complete its scheme. But the Reception Committee has not the money available. In fact, it is already £200 to the bad, for it is practically committed to an expense of £1400, and has only had £1200 to work upon • # # In the meantime, the difficulty has been overcome m a charmingly simple manner, which is strongly suggestive of Gilbertian topsy-turvy humour The Reception Committee has lcsolvcd to vote the Decoration Sub-Comnuttcc an cxtia £100, conditional upon the latter body getting the amount out of the jDublic in the shape of subscriptions We have no blame to cast upon either the Reception Committee or the Decoration Sub-Committee They are discharging a thankless task, at considci able inconvenience to themselves But, it is a duty which someone must carry through for the credit of the city m * * All this wony, and bother, and difficulty aie mainly due to the intermeddling of various functionaries in a simple civic duty The Governor, the Government, the Government s Organising Commissioner, the City Council, the Harbour Board, the Reception Committee, and goodness knows how many other hands have been mixed up m this business The two i eprescntative local bodies of Wellington, in conjunction with the citizens, ought to have been left to ai range the foim of leeeption within prescribed limitations Instead of that, everything has been at sixes and sevens, and the interference of the Governor and the Government at various stages, to impose peremptory conditions, has tended to weary, irritate, and disgust the pub-

It seems a pity, after all, that so much money should be wasted on these trumpery wooden arches. They aie of no public utility, and it would be amusing to suppose that the Duke and Duchess will regard them with the faintest interest. They but repioduce on a small and common scale, and in a poor and meagre manner, the kind of festal display which was carried out in so grandiose a style in Sydney and Melbourne. In our humble little way, and with our limited means, we have tried to ape the magnificence of cities ten times laiger and more opulent than our own * * * Far better would it have been to have invited the citizens to decorate their premises with flags, foliage, and flowers, and to turn out m their thousands to give the Prince and Princess a real hearty British welcome The erection of barricades m the streets to keep back the people, and the provision of "slip-rails at one or more convenient places to allow privileged persons to pass," are hardly the sort of thing to which we are accustomed in the colonies, and certainly will not tend to cause the popular heart to swell with any remaikable degree of enthusiasm