WHAKATANE'S CELEBRATIONS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 73, 18 May 1945, Page 4

WHAKATANE'S CELEBRATIONS

Sir^ —It is not a practicc of mine to write letters to newspapers or to take much notice of letters' written by other people who do not sign their names. However, the letter published in your issue of the 15th inst. should not be allowed to pass by without challenge as the statements contained therein are not correct.

Your correspondent signing him-T self 'Local Businessman' criticises;

our lack of enthusiasm in regard to (what he thinks should have been) the manner in which we celebrated V.R Day. He goes on to blame the Mayor and Councillors of Whakatane for not leading the community with loud cheers as (he states) was the case in Auckland and Wellington and other places. Sir ? this is unfair criticism. Wednesday was a tlay set aside for "thanksgiving" and was appropriately and reverently kept. I have no authority on behalf of the Mayor and Councillors to reply to Local Businessman's letter with regard to this matter but the following observations will prove that these gentlemen are not so dull as .our correspondent would leave peo-i pie. to believe. The Great News came throu-gh on Tuesday morning. It had been previously arranged and published in the newspapers that the balance of the day that the. news came through, would be observed as a holiday (for rejoicing) and the following day would be set aside for Thanksgiving. On the Tuesday morning the Mayor personally called on most business people in the town and requested them to close at 1 p.m. Several young people went so far as to engage two lorries, a piano and tv\|> bands for the purpose of brightening up proceedings in the Strand from 2.30 p,m. onwards. Later it was pointed out that the Government had broadcasted instructions that the following two days, Wednesday and Thursday were to lie observed as holidays. Local arrangements for the Tuesday had to be cancelled as people could not be left without provisions for two and a half days without pre-; vious. notice. Wednesday's proceedings have already been dealt with, and please do not forget the successful "Welcome Home Dance" held in the Winter Show Buildings that evening a report of -which was published in the same issue as Businessman's letter. Comparison has been made w r ith Auckland and Wellington the re-; ; 9 spective populations of these cities being in the vicinity of 223 700 and 160 ? 500 while the population of Whakatane Borough is 2300. The Majors' of these cities did not organise celebrations; these, arose from the spontaneous action of the people themselves. Now for Thursday. After the news came through and the Government decided that Thursday was to be observed as a holiday there was not sufficient time to organise anything properly. The schools were closed and we did not have the assistance of the teachers to muster the children for a picnic (should that have been found necessary)' Thursday proved to be a cold dis-: mal day and at the present time there is a mild epidemic of diphtheria in tlie district. No Sir. We must exercise a sense J. of proportion, and I feel sure that when "Local Businessman" reads this reply he will feel satisfied that the matter was not overlooked but that circumstances outside our control prevented what might have proved a lively Tuesday afternoon for the young peopi§7 Yours etc. H. G. WARREN, Member of the Whakatane Borough Council, President of the Wha'ka-. tane Chamber of Commerce.