OFF PARADE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17133, 8 September 1926, Page 7

OFF PARADE

MR. COATES AT HOME TOUR OF ELECTORATE PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE (Special to the Herald.) AUCKLAND, this day. Of all the good wishes that the Prime Minister will carry with him to the Imperial Conference there will be none more hearty or sincere than those of his 'constituents. This was made plain yesterday when Mr. Coates made a Imrrie I tour through his electorate, exchanging greetings .it impromptu gatherings of settlers by the wayside, and finishing in the evening at Dargaville, where he was the guest of honor at a .social tendered by a large number ol town residents and farmers from the adjacent counties.

Mr. Coates, easy of approach as be is anywhere in New Zealand, is more off parade in Kaipava, than iie is elsewhere. Here he knows all the .settlers by name, and know- their tioubles, big and small. The settlers, too, know Mr. Coates, To them he "Is both member and Prime Minister. Sometimes he is asked to advocate as a member for the electorate what he must turn down as Prime Minister, but he resolutely declines to .wept a dual jyersonality. DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENT.*;. Before the social at Dargaville, Mr, Coates attended the opening of the Plunket Society's rooms. During the evening lie presented the silver medals awarded by the Royal Humane Society to two boys for res.vuing their comrades from drowning in the Northern Wairoa river. The Prime Minister was at Matakohe yesterday, taking leave of his mother and relatives. He will reach Auckland to-night and leave by the Main Trunk express for Wellington. Oil his trip to England, the Prime Minister will be accompanied by Mr. !•'. D. Thomson, C.M.0., secretary of the Prime Ministers Department, and probably also by another member of the Cabinet- staff, but Mr. Coates said he could not yet say who the third member of New Zealand's delegation would be. Mrs. Coates returned to Wellington last, evening. The three younger children of the family will stay with Mr. Coates' relatives at Matakohe during the absence of their parents from the Dominion, the two eldest girls entering the hoardiiiff department 0 f Marsdeii College, Wellington, which hitherto ihev have attended as dav pupils.