LACK OF INTEREST OF BUSINESSMEN IS CRITICISED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 30, 26 August 1949, Page 5

LACK OF INTEREST OF BUSINESSMEN IS CRITICISED

Ail apathetic attitude of many of the business men at Whakatane towards public affairs in the district was alleged by the chairman, Mr A. J. Canning, at the annual meeting of the Whakatane St John Ambulance Association on Wednesday night. “Most of them don’t worry about anything else but themselves and their businesses,” he declared. . Mr Canning said that nearly all the business men of the town had been invited to the Association meetings but few bothered to come along. “I can’t understand the business men of this town,” he added. “They don’t worry about public affairs. They go home, at night, feed themselves, sit in front of the fire and read the paper, forgetting everything but themselves and their own businesses.”

Despite the invitations issued very few business men attended any of the St John meetings. They took the attitude that the Association had been functioning well in the past and therefore they were not needed, Mr Canning said. Many gave their five shillings but otherwise they did not bother to help personally.

“It has always been the same at Whakatane and that is what this Association has to contend with,” Mr Canning concluded. He considered it time some y of the business men “took a pull.”