The Hokitika Guradian WEDNESDAY' AUGUST 18th, 1922. THE HERITAGE.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 August 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guradian WEDNESDAY' AUGUST 18th, 1922. THE HERITAGE.

THtp visitors from the Coast to Canterbury last week did not neglect to extol the. district as opportunity offered. The interest manifested in the Golden Coast by denizens of the east was very marked and sustained. There is no

double that when the opportunity offers for quick transit through the AntJuir’s Pass tunnel there will ba a stream or traffic to the west which will exceed the most sanguine expectations. This indicates that the Coast has a pro. c ious heritage well worth taking every care of. The Tong line of coast, narrow though it be, is very pleasantly placed so far as climate is concerned. There is a very equable climate, never too hoi. never too cold. We have a prolific rainfall it prevents droughts and keeps the conn, try evergreen. There is a generous record of bright sunshine, which places the district in a very’ comparable position with other prominent centres. Nature lias been lrountiful too, in her assets of forests and minerals. Gold and (oal of untold wealth have been won from the bowels of earth. The forests have yielded vast quantities of timber. The minerals are still supplying groat wealth and the forests stretch far and wide a great store of wealth to meet the necessities of the future. As the land is cleored, it responds to cultivation and produces feed readily. The pastoral prospects of the country will expand as settlement grows. It is a land of great promise, responding readily to the hand of the settler, the miner and the miller. Bright as has been the past, the future must he more uniable still. People are going to bo attracted here for the natural beauty of the place. When access is easy and comfortable by rail the artificial attractions of places like Rotorua can no longer hold sway. Here is a great natural scenic resort possessing every variety of scenery to delight the mountaineer. the painter, and those who revel in a change of scene which reveals something different from the crowded city or the wide spreading plain country. There is a heritage here for the people which time will now help more rapidly to bring into use. With prospects so assured, those already in possession should he encouraged to aid the development of the district in every wav possible. In the monetary sense it will “pay” to forge the district ahead. But as Lloyd George has said it is not what a country gains which makes it great—it is what it gives. So our greatness can be won the quicker by giving of our best to help forward the district, not with the idea of selfish gain, but with an ideal for national benefit, being sure that casting our bread upon the waters in that way it will return to us again in due season. An open-hearted civic spirit which is bent on doing the best for the many is the surest road to that complete success which will to the ultimate reward well directed effort. The time for the practice of the spirit in its truest sense is at hand. There is an opening coming to the district now which has been waited for over long. The tide will soon he in the flood, and it will be well to go with the stream full steam ahead. Confidence in ourselves and eourago in the work before us is what is needed, and in the new awakening now manifesting itself there is every reason to believe that those two distinctive elements to ultimate success will be with us; and if that he so we shall reap the immediate value of the heritage in the early arrival of the reviving prospering times.