The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1912. OUR “BIRTHDAY” AND OTHER THINGS.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 102, 16 April 1912, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1912. OUR “BIRTHDAY” AND OTHER THINGS.

TO-DAY is the first anniversary of our birthday, and with the year’s results before us we may be pardoned for the feeling of satisfaction possessing us. The publication of to-day’s issue of

the WAIPA POST is, we feel, a suitable occasion for congratulation and a little retrospection — not merely for retrospection sake nor for our own sake, but for the value of the lesson to be learnt, not only by ourselves and our readers, but more especially by those whose war cry is “We Can’t.” Twelve months thought“‘We Could,” and wXm| gratified to find r ,we are where we did not be till our second or third “ birthday.” It’s only a handful of

months since the proposal to start a newspaper was considered by some as a fit subject for silly jesting, by others as “ an easy means of wasting good money.” And all for why ? Because of that insidious thing, want of faith and want of “eyes to see what is.” There may be some who still think the WAIPA POST more or less a joke because it is not the “Times,” the “Daily Mail,” the “ Nineteenth Century,” the “ Herald,” “ Chambers,” the “Weekly News,” and “Sydney Truth” rolled into one. As for the others, who were of the opinion that “ any fool can lose shareholders’ money,” we would; with modest pride, point them to our balance-sheet and our orderbook. But this is our “ birthday,” so that it would be as unseemly as it is unintentional to squabble and bicker. Our reference to ourselves and our success is prompted solely by the desire to ‘‘point a moral,” {not to adorn a tale), but to herald a hard fact — the hard fact that Te Awamutu “can,” if she will only believe she “ can.” “Can” what? Can bring herself up to the level of other towns that are prosperous and progressive, though dowered with but a tithe of the natural endowments and advantages with which this sunny verdant corner of the much-favoured Waikato is overloaded, yet —the pity of it, like so many more Godsent good things in this fair country so under-estimated. How many are there in Te Awa-

mutu if asked a year ago as to which was the most needed and the most likely venture as a business proposition to succeed—water or drainage, or lighting, or a newspaper, would, not without the least hesitation, have put them in that order? Very few, we venture to think. Yet we are celebrating our “ birthday,” and what is more, are pleased about it. Where then are—and why haven’t we got—the other greater and better-paying necessities. We would much rather not talk “shop,” but if a handful of citizens having nailed their “We Can ” war-cry to the mast of our modest craft, have proved the truth of it, why cannot the whole of the residents hoist their colours in favour of the far greater necessities ? We believe the banner which has been in the making for some time, is ready for hoisting so soon as the Town Board ships the mast to nail it to. When is that to be ? We are scarcely a wicked or a dirty people, vet judged by our streets at night, our gutters by day, and our microbe-infested water tanks at all times, we might easily be taken for both. If health is wealth —and it is, both to the individual and the communitywhy do we go on allowing ourselves to be cheated both. in pulse and purse ? Has that bogey “ Rates ” still got us by the throat ? We have every reason to think that gentleman’s grip is loosening as time goes on. Rather is it, we incline to think his first cousin “Taihoa,” has cast his mantle over the city fathers and ballasted them with its mossgrown draggled tails. Be the cause what it may, it is both a disability and a disgrace. And it should be every i*atepayer’s business to find out where the block is and combine to remove it. We hold our own opinion as to where the trouble exactly lies—but this is our “birthday,” and we are not out to say hard things. We will content ourselves in the meantime in the expression of the hope that on the occasion of our next anniversary we will be able to congratulate Te Awamutu on the successful working of those blessings, so necessary, and such potent factors in the building up and permanent advancement ofany and every town—water, drainage and lighting schemes, to say nothing of improved roads and navigable footpaths, and, if not labouring the question of town improvements too much, may we express the hope that a Scenic Conservation Society for the beautifying of our town and

the conservation and preservation of the many historic spots in and about Te Awamutu, may soon be an accomplished fact.