LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19031, 30 May 1925, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

—i lit MKRCUTIO. HaiJ to tho new leader of the nation! A man of tho North, a son of tho soil, u soldier of -parts, a good comrade, a hard worker, an ideal chief to those who work with him, could tho choice have gone, anywhere else ? OF course it could not. Now Zealahd boro him, nurtured him, educated him, trained him from boyhood to bo a real New Zen,lander, and now welcomes him as Prime Minister. Nothing could be more fitting. Joseph Gordon Coates is no veteran politician, who lias served years and yeai/s beyond count, a plodding member of the' party winning his way to leadership by slow degrees. Ho has reached it with dazzling suddenness; and tho best feature of the thing is that, when doing tho work which brought him to the goal, he thought everything of the work, arid nothing of the goal. It was not a goal to him consciously, lie was more interested in his job than in tho opportunities it might bring. So tho country, noting with appreciation how he has done tilings which had been too hard for others, now asks him to do more and harder things. That is tho charming way countries? have of showing their gratitude. But tho country's instinct is generally sound. It knows a man when it ! sees one. Mr. Coates having been chosen Prime Minister, special satisfaction will be felt by a section of the community with a reason all its own for being interested. The name of Coates has been very well known for 50 years in the Northern Wairoa district. Mr. Coates was born in that part of tho country. The people who used to livo there, those, who could almost claim to bo tho original inhabitant;;, have scattered far and wide since the old days of timber and kauri gum have given way to dairying and share-milking. Hut they always remember tho Northern Wairoa with a very warm affection; they remember tho days when it was said that unco the kauri was all cut out and the gum all dug tho bottom would fall out ut" things, and the land become deserted. They did not believo it, but they dill not arguo much. They just smiled and waited. It is doubtful whether they ever heard Sir Robert Stout predicting that the enervating climate of tho north was destroying the virility and rugged virtues of the race. They would not nave argued with him. They would just have smiled and waited. All tho time they believed that tho Northern Wairoa could go on producing against auy plaeo in the world, and especially could produco human material to compare with tho best. Every time anyone does anything worth while, they look to see whether he was once one of them in the Northern Wairoa. Very often it is so. Then they smilo and feel they have not waited in vain. Now they can i'laim the Prime Minister is an old Wairoa boy, they will not bo unduly puffed up; they will just feel that as tho district has justified itself by being more prosperous than ever though the kauri timber and gum are almost all gone, so the folk from the Northern Wairoa go on fulfilling expectations. Memories are short, so that quito probably many people have forgotten tho gasps of astonishment occasioned by the direct and blunt manner Sir. Coates displayed when lirtit ho became a Minister. He is not expected now to cireumlocuto or wrap his meaning in smooth phrases. The public expects frankness from him, and is rarely, disappointed. But he did disconcert some folk at first. For instance, not long after he became Minister for Public Works he attended a conference of power boards. A proposal for an amalgamation o? districts, and an arrangement for a joint board to produce power independent of the Government was advanced. Fairly extensive State aid in finance would fie needed, and when tho scheme was rounded' off tho new board would bo m a better position than the Government itself in power production. It was a Napoleonic conception. Those who propounded it evidently thought the Minister ought to be impressed. When their spokesman finished sketching the plan they all looked expectantly toward the Minister for his respectful pronouncement. They got it from Mr. Coates in one sentence, "/You havo two chances of getting what you are asking lor—your own and Buckley's." It was brief, but it served. Nothing more has been heard of tho scheme from that day to this. An Instance of tho unexpected thrust which the new Primo -Minister can give, where he is being bombarded with requests demands, and importunities occurred not so long ago m an Auckland country town. Means,tif access had to be given to a certain district where important development work was ou foot. There were rival routes. Students of local affairs may havo noticed that in similar circumstances there generally are rival routes, each advocated with the most disinterested motives. Anyway, a deputation met Mr. Coates to urge the claims of one route. Its caso was put by an Irishman of the irrepressible type, who. had evidently saluted tho Blarney stone in his time, and had developed his native gifts of free expression to the utmost. He had ju.it got into his stride nicely, and the sentences were literally galloping out hard on the heels of one anothet), Then came a brie! pause for breath, when the listening Minister quietly interpolated: " And what does your friend Mr. So fjind So think of this?" Now Mr. So and So was the chief advocate of the other route. Also he was an Irishman even more irrepressible than the one speaking. Result, tableau! It was seconds before the eloquent one recovered sufficiently to confess that he had not consulted his fellow countryman on the question. He never really regained his former swing and vigour, iand the deputation finished in record time. ,11 was the touch of an artist. In tlie dusting received last week-end the steamer Awuhoti behaved so well that tho crew say she will weather anything. Members of Parliament, here is your chance. Charter her for the election ! Therifs many a slip betwixt tho cup and lip; and every time it rains really heavily there's 'many a slip between r le Kuiti and Taihape. One of tho Fijian exhibits at the South Seas Exhibition is to he a huge cannibal war drum, which is to bo used to summon visitors to the drinking of kava. If it is really a cannibal drum, let us hope it is kept under proper restraint, and not allowed to got loose among the band instruments. Incidentally, its name implies an original use to summon people to banquets at which visitors were present, but from which they did not depart. Not long ago there were floods of criticism about the tower on the new arts building of the University College. Some of the things said were enough to shako any tower to its foundations unless it we're most stoutly reinforced. Those who likened it to an ornament off a wedding cake did not mean it was too awfully sweet for words—not by a long sight. Now all that has died away. It is months and months since a word was said against it. Yet it is still there, more there than ever, in fact. Mr. Dettmann. who, returning on a holiday trip from Sydney, seems as pleased to see AucKland as Auckland is to seo him again, says that at first ho did not like the tower, but having seen the rest of the building he has now grown to like its steeple. Put it just that way too. He did not even say that having seen tho rest of tho building ho likes tho tower better. Mr. Dettmann does not say things like that, or even mean them. Like all good stories, of course, this story has a moral. It is a pity the Civic Square schemo was not carried out, because if it had been thoso who objected to it most strenuously might havo grown reconciled on closer acquaintance. Some might even have come to like it, as Mr. Dettmann has learned to like the tower.