PROGRESS LEAGUE

Wairarapa Age, 21 November 1928, Page 5

PROGRESS LEAGUE

ORGANISATION PROPOSAL ; OUTLINED. ME. P. R. r-T.TMTR ADDRESSES BOROUGH COUNCIL. 5 ’CONFERENCE TO BE CALLED NEXT TUESDAY. w The Masterton Borough Council I met half an hour earlier than usual last evening in order to hear an address by Mr. P. E. Climie, secretary and organiser of the Canterbury Progress League, upon proposals for the organisation of the Wairarapa Progress League. It . was announced that a conference . of district representatives to consider these proposals would be by the Mayor (Mr. T. Joron Tuesday next. Mr. Climie, who was aceompanied by Mr. H. A. R. Dunderdale of the Wairarapa Progress League), the Mayor said that he had been for some years organiser and secretary to the Canterbury Progress League, which had a long list of achievements to its credit. The Wairarapa League was fortunate in being able to enlist Mr. Climie’s assistance. Mr. Jordan added that he had asked Mr. Climie to say a word or two to the council as a body interested in the progress of the town and district. Mr. Climie thanked the Mayor and council for the opportunity of addressing them, and said the promoters of the Wairarapa League had paid the Canterbury League a compliment in invoking its assistance. The movement was in to sense a town one. It was a district movement, embracing the whole of the Wairarapa district — counties and towns. That was the only basis on which it was possible to forward the movement with any prospect of success. XHear, hear.) One of the difficulties the promoters were up against already related to finance. Mr. Dunderdale had told him that much of his time was taken up in collecting small subscriptions. Not much could be accomplished on these lines. Even if £lOOO were ■A collected in this way, the district would be as it was when the movement started. The only effective way to get such a movement started was to bring in all public bodies and associations on a common plan for the advancement of the whole district. He was very glad that the Mayor agreed with him on this point. Mr. Climie said he did not profess to know what the requirements of the Wairarapa were. Looking round the countryside as he had that day, it mwht be thought that the Wairarapa everything it required. He had nWcr seen such beautiful country in all his travels. This was a district to be proud of and one really worth working for. THE CANTERBURY PLAN. The Mayor had suggested that perhaps the best thing he could do was to give them some idea of how the Prox gress League was organised in Canterbury. They started off in much the same way as was proposed here. The Mayor of Christchurch at that time convened a conference of representatives of public bodies and associations in the region served by the port of Lyttelton. The conference was largely attended and passed a unanimous resolution endorsing the idea of a Progress I-eague on the basis of local bodies and public associations. Details were not discussed at the conference, but a provisional committee was set up and that committee got to work ®nd set up secondary committees, one to frame a suitable constitution, another to deal with policy and another with finance. These committees reported in dne course to the executive. * A suitable constitution was a framed and a basis of finance agreed upon. The basis of that finance was the valuation figures of the whole of the district represented on the league. It was found that a levy of sixpence per £lOOO of rateable capital valuation would produce an income sufficient to provide for a good staff and for incidental expenses in connection with Administration. An income of about £l5OO a year was obtained in this way. WAIRARAPA FINANCE. He suggested that this system, which had worked very equitably for the last ten years in Canterbury, might be seriously considered by the promoters of the Wairarapa Progress League. The Wairarapa had a capital valuation of £23,000,000. If the local bodies in the district agreed to contribute on a basis of sixpence per £lOOO of rateable capital value, an income of about £6OO per annum would be obtained. Fully fhis amount would be required and it might be supplemented at the outset by special donations from business firms and individuals. A DISTRICT CONFERENCE. Mr. Climie went on to state that he had that day been driven as far as Martinborough. Mr. Dunderdale and himself had seen several representative men, all of whom were very pleased to hear that it was proposed to form a Progress League on the lines of the Canterbury League. Mr. Jordan proposed to call a meeting of district representatives next Tuesday, at 2.30 p.m. Between now and then, Mr. Climie added, Mr. Dunderdale would drive him round the district so that he might meet as many representative citizens A as possible. He hoped that at the impending meeting a resolution would be carried in favour of this movement going forward. RESULTS IN CANTERBURY. At the Mayor’s request, Mr. Climie then gave a brief outline of the work accomplished by the Canterbury Progress League. He told in detail something of what it had done to expedite the completion of the Otira tunnel, the extension of the Lake Coleridge hydroelectric works and the electrification of the Lyttelton line, all of them works of great importance to Canterbury and which had been carried out sooner than they otherwise would have been but for the efforts of the league. Looking to the future, Mr Clfmie added, the league was now interesting itself in the harnessing of the Waitaki Stream, in Cactjjibprv. CaJwidga

was no longer able to meet fully the demand for power. While these three big things were being proceeded with, the League had turned its attention to quite a number of small activities. When train services were cut down as a result of coal shortage, it organised motor services. So useful were these found, in speeding up mails and in other ways, that some of them were still running. ADVERTISING ATTRACTIONS. The Canterbury League had done a great deal in the way of advertising the attractions of its province, both from the standpoint of tourist traffic and as a field for investment. The league's booklets had gone all over the world—he had received letters from practically every country in the world as a result of their booklet advertising. The booklets were distributed through railways, shipping companies and other travel agencies. Money for this form of advertising was not drawn from the ordinary funds of the league, but was provided by the business firms of Christchurch. He suggested that one of the first things the Wairarapa League should do was to advertise the attractions of the district, obtaining funds by an appeal to business firms. Another thing the Canterbury League had done was to induce the P. and T. Department to abstain from imposing a heavy additional charge for telephones. The league had set up a special committee which, was able to show the Department that the increase proposed was not warranted. In this way, £15,000 a year had been, saved to telephone subscribers in Canterbury and a very much larger sum to subscribers throughout the Dominion. The Canterbury League had gone very thoroughly into the question of highway improvement and had framed proposals which had been adopted as the considered policy of the combined local bodies of the province. A great deal of attention was given, too, to educational work. Lectures of practical interest to farmers were broadcast by wireless every other Thursday. It was now proposed to organise lectures in Christchurch. The league had been very successful in co-opting the services of university professors and other experts of high, standing, among them Professor Tocker, who was born and brought up in Carterton, and now occupied the position of Professor of Economics at Canterbury College.

In concluding, Mr. Climie said that it seemed to him that what they had been able to do in Canterbury, it should be possible to do here much more easily. There was a keen spirit of progress in the North. Island. Much might be accomplished by the local bodies of the Wairarapa if they really got together in a movement of this kind at the meeting to be convened by the Mayor of Masterton next Tuesday. (Applause.) The Mayor, on behalf of tho council, thanked Mr. Climie for his talk and said h 6 hoped before many days had passed to hear him again at greater length.