THE PRIME MINISTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19440, 28 October 1925, Page 6

THE PRIME MINISTER

The citizens of Wanganui and many people living beyond the city will welcome the opportunity to-day of greeting the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Hon. J. G. Coates. This will be Mr. Coates’ first visit to the city since he accepted the highest office in the State at the hands of the people’s representatives in Parliament, and Wanganui will gladly accord him the honour due to his position as Leader of the Government. His stay will be so short that it will be impossible for the citizens to offer the kind of reception that Wanganui always prepares for its distinguished visitors, but the welcome need not on that account be any the less sincere. As Prime Minister Mr. Coates is discharging the duty that the country expects of its chief citizen on the eve of a general election. He is traversing the Dominion from end to end, meeting the people, giving them an account of the work that the Government has been doing in the national interest, and explaining the programme which it seeks the authority of the electors io carry out. Other Ministers and representatives of the party in office are able to speak both of its record and of its plans, but custom demands, and not unreasonably, that the Prime Minister him&elf shall present his case to as many of the electors as it is possible for him to meet in the liimted time at his disposal. Mr. Coates is to give an address in the Opera House at 2.30 p.m., so that a large number of the citizens may be able to hear from his own lips why he desires a renewal of the country’s confidence. It is not, of course, to be a meeting for supporters of the Government, but rather an opportunity for those who are seriously interested in public affairs to hear the citizen who is most seriously interested. It happens that this citizen is a native-born New Zealander, and one who has done his country great service both as a statesman and as a soldier. Every one of his fellow-citizens should esteem it an honour and a pleasure to offer a welcome to a New Zealander who has done much for New Zealand.