Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7, 1949 ENTHUSIASM!

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 73, 7 December 1949, Page 4

Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7, 1949

ENTHUSIASM!

Although a bit of dirty weather messed up part of it, most people admitted that last year’s carnival effort at Whakatane was sufficiently successful to justif/"making the thing an annual event. As usual, the degree of success achieved was due to the enthusiasm and effort of a hard-working few, while the rest of the town concenrated on raking in the bawbees and indulged in a bit of joyous back-slapping afterwards. Much thg same sort of set-up seems to be building this year. Judging from the dismal flop of last week’s public meeting (attended by six people) very few citizens here care a hoot whether there is a carnival . oh not. But if somebody else will do the work, they will all be prepared to yell “Good show!” With the best and chirp up blithely with a “For we are Jolly Good Fellows” chorus —• emphasis on the “we”. Why don’t Whakatanians want to boost Whakatane? They must like the place a bit, or they wouldn’t, stay here. If they are in business, it must' pay them reasonable dividends, or they Wouldn’t stay in business. Wage rates generally are good here. And the town has plenty of at" tractions.

But its citize'ns just will not take any active interest in attempts such as the Carnival Committee is making to put it on the map. And it’s even betting that the hard workers get a lot more criticism than thanks if they do 3 get anything started. We had that experience ourselves last year, in connection with this very thing. We worked hand-in-glov i with the Committee to stir up a bit of interest and to maintain it. We gave a’vfay a lot more space to the cause than we sold to the Committee, and when it was all over we got a latrine wireless report that someone was grizzling to the Chamber of Commerce that we hadn’t given the carnival enough for nothing. We challenged the person or people responsible to get ■up at an open meeting of the -Chamber and comment on the space figures we produced, but we got no response. The lad Who was slipping the dagger tween the shoulder blades acted like Bobbie Burns’s mouse—wee coW’rin’, timorous beastie.

This year we stand where we stood last year. This organisa-* tion is one that will back up any move for the progress of the town and district, and will cooperate with other local organisations to the limit of their cooperation with it. News space and advertising space are available again this year. But, before we start chopping deeply into pages designed to interest the maximum number of more than 2,000 families who read this paper, we \yant to know that more than six people are interested in copy about a Christmas carnival. If last week’s publie meeting is a real indication of the interest, then we should be wasting our space and time. And, if that ,is a true measure of public interest, then the members of last year’s committee will also be wasting their time if they try to carry on.

. Primarily, the idea of a carnival is to give visitors and local people who are not going away for holidays the, idea that this place has scope for entertainment, to make them feel they like being here. In the second place, it can drag large numbers of people into the town during shopping hours, and can help to keep the cash registers ringing blithely. That means, then, if we are friendly, hospitable ’ types, we should be keen to provide entertainment for the, people who come into town in; the holiday spirit. And if we are in business or employed by someone who is, self-interest if nothing else should prompt us to , want to see the crowds in town.:

This should be everybody’s baby. ' f

And, to justify the effort to run a carnival there will needto be a good many more than s’x people at the second attempt to hold a meeting tomorrow rrghl.