CHILDREN'S CARNIVAL PROCESSION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 258, 15 January 1941, Page 4

CHILDREN'S CARNIVAL PROCESSION

Sir' Your correspondent "Another (Fair) Well Wisher'" does not dispute my points that (1) the distance of the children's procession was too far for tiny tots,, (2) that there was unnecessary delay in start ing the march on the Strand, (3) that parents who had parked their cars in the Strand <\vera inconveni- 1 enced at having to heat of the day a mile along Commerce stand about for a long time, and thenback. Thanks to your correspondent we now know that the reason for all this lack of consideration for country parents and children was - that "the Commerce Street retailers had been canvassed" by the carnival organisers, and had demanded, like Shylock, their pound of flesh, namely that the children's procession should take the form of a route march past their business premises. I trust that not all Commerce Street people were so hard-hearted. Perhaps next year the retailers of King Street will be canvassed, and then we shall see the spectacle of five year olds in fancy dress escorted byt mothers in tight-fitting shoes,• toiling for nearly two miles on the hot bitumen roadway toward the goal where a free ice cream coupon is handed out. What is Whakatane's (now) annual New Year Carnival to be run for? Is it to attract crowds in front of the shops of Commerce Street and other so th,afc people will spend their money, or is it to entertain the visitors, including the children ? To start the procession in Commerce Street is all very well if only town chil-t dren are expected to take part, because the main residential quarter of the town is further on still. But surely the' aim of the carnival promoters should be to attract country children, whose parents come in motor cars, which will always be parked in or near the Strand. Yours etc., WELL WISHER.