CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXII, Issue 9736, 25 July 1910, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

A PLEA FOR ENTERPRISE,

[TO THE KDITOR. |

Sir,—Will you kindly allow me a little space in your valuable columns iii which to put forward a few suggestions auent the progress of Mastertou and the surrounding district. The Budget has been announced, aud in it are contained many .points of vital iuterest to Masterton. As time slips by we wonder more and more at the apathy of Masfcerton's public halfspirited men. One would almost imagine that a proposal to spend half a million per annum on hydro-electric power did not iuterest us'at all. We will probably find shortly that if this matter does not interest Masterton, it certainly will interest others to some purpose, aud while wo peacefully doze in our almost industry less town, waiting for "somethiug to turn up," we will be forestalled by more pro? gressive communities. Already Falmerston, Hastings, Napier, Gisborue, and other centres have put forward their several schemes for reaping a harvest from this, one of the greatest innovations ever placed before the public of the Dominion; and in this matter Mastertou has perhaps the best and most practical natural opportunity or any town in the Dominion. Indeed the lassitude of the people surpasseth all understanding. Is it possible that the would-be leaders In local enterprise are unaware of tne fact that this town sould be supplied with power and light at something less than one-half what these services cost at present, without any outside assistauce whatever? It surely cannot be; rather let us suppose that they simply will not take the trouble to speak—and to speak in such a way as to convince the powers that be that when a fitting time presents itself they will be prepared to act, aud that to some purpose. Perhaps the difficulty is concerned with vested interests. I am incliued to the opiuiou that such is the case in respent of the public bodies, at least; aud it is just this throat-cutting policy that Keeps more than one-half the civilised world in poverty and drudgery.

Now,if, as has been proved, Napier cau be supplied with power from Lake Waikaremoaua at one penny per uuit average—and the distance from which the power is brought is over sixty miles—at what rate could Mastertou be supplied with au ample head of water within five miles of the town, with no high tension transmission lines to keep up, no lengthy pipe line in which to sink capital, and no transformer loss? Wβ should have, iudeeil, literally thousands of horse-power available, direct from the brushes of the dynamo. Aud Mastertou stands more hi need of seme such scheme than does any other town, aud for the oue vital reason "that we are the most isolated from any great coal area," aud as power is only practically procurable from the two sources, coal and water, why not, in the abseuce of the former, choose the only other possible solutiou of the cheap power problem. Iv any case, a hydro-electric scheme, such as is possible iv Mastertou, could be made to defeat all competitors on their own ground, even if the necessary coal could be won within the Borofigh.

Further, let us turn our atteutiou to the matter of privato telephone lines. Cannot someone make a suggestion that will prove useful in this important wovk? The Budget moots assistance to settlers in this direction, so now is tlie time to make kuowu our requirements. It is useless to wait for the Government to put forward proposals on such matters ; they know little or nothing about private telephones aud their needs and requirements: how could they be expected to know? Though our Premier may not be the apple of everybody's eye, I am sure that he would readily grasp at any practical suggestion that would be iikeJy to help for ward the scheme indicated.

Everyone will admit that private telephones are an important factor in the progress of the town and the surrounding districts, and anyone may without difficulty observe that most of the lines, if they are not already so, soon will be overloaded. This, of course, means that the present subscribers must shortly resort to a wholesale lock-out policy, in self-defence, to guard against the cost of re-con-structiou; in fact, this is already beiug done.

And now, before I encroach unduly upon your space, may I ask, where is our fruit-growing industry? Here we are, perhaps as favourably situated as any town in the Dominion—with a paternal Government at our back, willing to do anything within reason to help us along; but in spite of this we must bring our necessary fruit all the way from Napier; and, worse still, while we are situated alongside the best fruit market in New Zealand, Napier sends its fruit —or did send it until the Wairarapa became so dead as not to be worth even a reasonable train service—rignt through our very midst and into that market which we should be exploiting most vigorously.

Maaterton is about as excited just now as it has ever been over a preposterous drainage scheme, where there is practically nothing to drain. It would be a deal more sensible to get excited over a scheme that would give people a cliauce of making a little money, than to bother about schemes for spending it. If someone would come forward at the present juncture and advocate a scheme that would infuse into the community a spirit of enterprise and self-reliance, it would be greatly to bis credit. "First got something to drain, and afterwards see to draining it," would,to my idea, be the most sensible proposal.

The foregoing remarks are merely suggestive. Can someone who is really in touch with the public carry these matters a little further, and achieve something tangible—or am I asking too much?—l am, etc.,

NORMAN E. JACKSON,