The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1913. OUR GUESTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 17, 20 June 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1913. OUR GUESTS.

The one subject which has occupied the town since the departure of the New Zealand on Tuesday night has been the ) fact that so few people were allowed to < board the giant wiirsliip during her visit to New Plymouth, although the weather ( conditions were eminently favorable, and the lay mind could see no reason why ( everybody should not have been allowed •o go on board. The average man al- , ways constitutes himself an expert upon each and every occasion, and, in defiance 1 of Captain Halscy's dictum, there have not been wanting people who are disposed to suggest that the town has been treated with some degree of discourtesy. \ It has been stated that if Captain Halsey and his officers could come ashore, there was no reason why the two football teams should not havo been landed and why the general public should not have been permitted access ta the vessel; But the exercise of a little commonsense will show that there is no parallel between the two suggestions. At a rough estimate there were between fifteen and twenty thousand people at Moturoa on Tuesday, and probably two- ,< thirds of these were anxious to set foot o'l the deck of the Dreadnought. This is a large number to handle in an open roidstead, and, although the weather was fair throughout the' day, Captain Halsey was, no doubt, wise to the fact that Taranaki is subject to climatic changes which come upon us with extraordinary quickness. Capacious as she is, the Dreadnought would not have provided accommodation for all those who wished to inspect her during her brief visit to the port, and. all other reasons apart, Captain Halsey was probably wise in not allowing fish to be made iof one section of the community and fowl of the other. He has a vast responsibility upon his shoulders in handling Itliis expensive war machine, and nobody should blame him for being wise in time j and declining to take risks that the longshoreman, with no responsibility at ! all. would be prepared to take at the street corner with .other people's property. Captain Halsey may have been over-careful, but it must be realised that he simply could not afford to take any chances at all, however remote, either with his ship or with his crew. To suggest that he was guilty of any discourtesy or that he and his officers were suffering from "that tired feeling," will not bear discussion at all. There j has never been a more courteous or more obliging "member of the King's Navee" in the country than Captain Halsey, and he bus taken a thoroughly appreciative and practical interest in our social and political life) and has done everything possible in his power to place his ship, as far as was consonant with safety, at the disposal of the people who presented her to the Empire. The Navy, as a rule, is regarded as being a singularly autocratic branch of the service, but the Admiralty was surely blessed with exfceptional foresight when it selected a man of Captain Halsey's parts to command the New Zealand on her tour through a country that is particularly I jealous of its democratic' reputation. We have every confidence in his judgment, and are quite satisfied that when he declined to allow the larger steamers to tender the Dreadnought, he had ample reasons for his decision, and that it was not prompted by any churlish spirit but simply by a realisation of responsibilities of a very heavy order. And so with the shipping companies, who from the outset made it clear that they would take no risks in regard to tendering. We do Hot like to think that there should he any other feeling in the district than this for a man who has been consistently kindly and courteous, and who has always done everything in his power to assist the local committees wherever the battleship lias been able to visit the ports of New Zealand. New Plymouth was singularly lucky in many respects, and has t.ie honor nf being the only port on the West Coast that the New Zealand was able to visit'in'comparatively line weather. The captain and his officers did the best they could under the circumstances, and it is simply casting reflections upon our own hospitality to carp at any decision that may have been made that does not agree with the dictum of the man in the street. THE MOTOR HOG. It is quite time that something was done in regard to the excessive speed at which motorists travel in the Borough. On Tuesday a child was injured at the junction of St. Aubyn and Morley streets, and on Wednesday a little girl was run over on t'lie South road, near the West End School, both accidents we are informed, being due solely to negligent driving. A representative was informed to-day thai the speed at which motorists travel along the South road is something abnormal. "They open it out at the Terminus Hotel," said the informant, "and continue at this pace along the main roads." This is all very well if the road is clear, but there are times when it is absolutely dangerous. There are »ovcr three hundred scholars attending the West End School, and when the little ones are dismissed, they, as children will do, congregate around the roadway. The motorist should make provision for this, and if he will persist in .driving his ear at a speed which is dangerous to the public, he should at least drive carefully over this small stretch of road, it is to be hoped that the Borough Council will make an effort to do something in the matter, not only ill respect to the speed On the South road, but on all roads that come under.their control.