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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9100, 19 March 1901, Page 1

Sir Westby Perceval was interviewed at Christchurch last week. "Glad to be back!" he exclaimed, in reply to the inevitable question; "I should think I am. My sojourn in the Old Country has only strengthened my love for New Zea-. land, and my conviction that this is the 'greatest little country 1 on the face of the earth; I have been away for nearly ten years, and am very pleased to see the solid progress that has been made during my absence. • All through the North Island settlement has made rapid strides, and, what is particularly gratifying to me, it is the kind of settlement to which I have always attached primary importance—the rooting to the soil of small working fanners. This is the movement that has contributed so largely to our present prosperity. The illumination and fireworks question is not dying out yet (writes the Wellington correspondent of the Lyttelton Times). The Premier informed the Municipal and Citizens' Committee to-day that the Government expects every local body to do its duty. Asked if the Government would give £ for £, he emphatically thought not. The> Government would be spending large sums on its own account, but after some conversation he intimated that if there were any signs of meanness the Government will fee prepared to save the colony from disgrace by taking charge of the whole matter ; otherwise, if municipalities do well, they will not find the Government backward in helping forward any Empowering or Indemnity Bill that may be required.