PREMIER WELCOMED

Southland Times, Issue 19170, 14 February 1924, Page 5

PREMIER WELCOMED

BY CANTERBURY SUPPORTERS AN ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION NECESSITY FOR IMPERIAL CONFERENCE. (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, February 13. Mr Massey was accorded an enthusiastic welcome by a large gathering of citizens at a Civic reception this morning. The reception was of a non-political nature, and the Mayor, Mr J. A. Flesher, presided. THE MAYOR’S WELCOME. Mr Flesher said it was the first occasion in the history of Christchurch that a Civic welcome had been extended to the Prime Minister. The function was of no political importance whatever. Politics, as far as the function was concerned, were taboo. They had met to do honour to Mr Massey because he was the head of the Dominion. The load of responsibility resting upon the Prime Minister was so great that one often wondered if it would not be better if there was a redistribution. As with the State, so it was with the individual, continued the Mayor. Too much centralisation did not make for the best, and he hoped it would not be regarded as presumptuous on his part to suggest that the time had arrived when the Prime Minister should relieve himself of some of his responsibility and put it on the shoulders of others. Perhaps the experience so gained if that were tried might be so satisfactory that the Premier would carry it further in public affairs, and extend it to provincial and municipal affairs. Mr Flesher went, on to say that Mr Massey had always been actuated by the highest ideals and had never betrayed the trust reposed in him. To put it in a shorter form, Mr Massey had never "let us down.” Perhaps the most satisfactory feature of the public life of the Dominion was that there had never been the slightest suggestion of graft among the leaders. MR MASSEY’S REPLY. Mr Massey was enthustically applauded on rising to Respond, and the whole gathering stood up in honour to him. His speech was mostly devoted to Imperial Conference matters and was on the lines of his recent utterances on the subject. "I have come back more impressed than ever with the idea that we don’t know in New Zealand how well off we are,” said Mr Massey. One had only to go to the other side of the world, especially in the winter, to realise that. Speaking of the Imperial Conference Mr Massey said he believed that if the Empire was to be kept together, and he was confident that it would hold together, then the leaders of different parts must meet periodically and discuss matters that affected them all, so as to arrive at definite conclusions. In his experience, men with widely different views had met together and after sitting for a few hours round the oak table in Downing Street, had been able to come to an agreement and arrive at a definite conclusion. If the leaders did not come together, the danger was that the Empire might drift apart. It had been suggested that by the decisions of the Imperial Conference there was a possibly of the autonomy of the different Dominions being interfered with, but he had been to the Conference five times, and there never had been the slightest suggestion of any interference with the rights of self-government of auy of the Dominions. The gathering concluded with the singing of the National Anthem.