OPUNAKE TIMES Speaks for the District. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1935 SPEED OF ROYAL TOUR

Opunake Times, 11 January 1935, Page 2

OPUNAKE TIMES Speaks for the District. FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1935 SPEED OF ROYAL TOUR

The protests uttered by the press oi Christchurch against the ( speed with which the Dukc of Crioucester is being hurried through the South Island find many an echo iu the Noun Island, says the “Hawera Star, j One Christchurch newspaper cori respondent describes the tour as a '••triumph for officialdom 1 ' and Complains that the arrangements Have allowed “nobody but offi<cials to see the Duke. Ihe , .latter statement is an exaggeraj tion, but it was certainly true in | many instances in the North j .Island that only representative ( •people were allowed to obtain (iauore than a fleeting glimpse of ■ the Royal visitor. After making >due allowance for the onerous re.sponsibility that rests upon the shoulders of the Government I -officials responsible for keeping 1o schedule throughout the tour, it. can be stated that there has been an excess of zeal in some (■directions. This was proved in (Taranaki and Manawatu. It was ■only in response to pressure j brought to bear by the civic ! .-authorities that Hawera was able fo get an extension of fime suffi•ent to bring the Duke from the . railway station into fhe heart of !bc town. Further had it not been :.fur local pressure, the ceremony in Hawera would have been cur-1-tailed so rigidly that the fe-v present at ions of individual citizens would have been eliminated. :And yet at New Plymouth, before reaching Hawera, the Duke had I Twenty minutes to spare and at Palmerston North he arrived an Jl)our ahead of schedule! That irneans that those towns, as well :ns Hawera, were unnecessarily ([TOslied for time as regards their j d'onnal ceremonial arraugemenTs. (The other point iu the Cliristj flriwich protest, regarding, the j “dangerous speed” of travel is f .also well made. This did not apply here to the speed at which the t Royal entourage travelled by i train, but it did certainly apply ( to some of the uniformed “out- [ .riders” who travelled by motor I -car. A very laudable desire to ■strike no jarring note during the progress of the tour has suppressed criticism iu most quarters, but those Christchurch papers which had dared to criticise I ‘officialdom in this instance have ' performed a public service. A little more regard for the real object of the tour aud a little less zeal [for departmental reputations for “getting things done,” would have been of all round advantage as far as the North Island portion of the tour was concerned.