WHAT TIMARU NEEDS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19622, 17 October 1933, Page 11

WHAT TIMARU NEEDS.

To the Editor of " The Tlmaru Herald ” Sir—Now that the fictitious gaiety of '-V' Queen Carnival is over, thank 'ness, I wonder if it will be possto consider the whole question v.ly and rationally. For weeks we ■ had the spectacle of grown-up ness and professional men spenddays and nights, and a great deal rime and energy, and possibly ight, in carrying on a rather futile an of public soliciting of subscripnns. It's for a good cause, we are told. So was Caesar's "bread and circuses." And for this cause, city, town and village make a pompous burlesque of the beautiful ceremonial which comes only once in a real king’s life. Surely old Thomas Carlyle's irony about the people of his day could be repeated now! Twelve hundred pounds have been raised for the poor and needy. Excellent! What does it matter that the shopkeepers of Stafford Street are nearly ruined by this constant begging in the streets. I would suggest to the shopkeepers t,ha, they demand complete freedom from any further street days, street begging or street trading until after Christmas, and further that the next man who advocates a Queen Carnival should be promptly lynched, deported or taken to have his head read. The money which has been collected, at such a cost, is not new money. It is just the same little bit that so sluggishly circulates. What Timaru needs is new money and a lot of it. If all the 1 me, energy, organising ability, and possibly thought, put into the recent Queen Carnival by all the committees, were set to work to making Tlmaru especially attractive to tourists and visitors at Christmas time, then fresh money would be brought into the town. If only two thousand visitors could be attracted here, accommodated and entertained, they would spend probably an average of £lO each, which works out to the respectable total of £20.000 absolutely fresh money brought into the town and district. I offer this suggestion freely to the committees, but I do hope that they will not immediately think of chocolate wheels on Caroline Bay!—l am, etc., CITIZEN. Tlmaru, October 13.