HOKITIKA EXHIBITION.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 September 1923, Page 4

HOKITIKA EXHIBITION.

(Saturday’s Christchurch “Press.”)

Tt is good to have the assurance of tho Canterbury agent that Canterbury business men are taking space freely in the Hokitika Exhibition. In a .statement made to a representative of “The Press,” and published in our commercial columns yesterday. Mr Ilonre said that it is certain that most of the big firms will be represented. If he is justified. ns we are sure he is. in his anticipation that “by the end of tho present month—three weeks before application- for space will close —the space available for Canterbury exhibits will all be taken up.” then there need not be any anxiety about the business relations in future between the East and West Coasts of the South Island. Put it does not seem to lie fully realised that Hokitika is about to stage something far bigger than a display of local and intercolonial merchandise. Historically, the Exhibition celebrates both tlm opening of the Arthur’s Pass Tunnel and the Diamond Jubilee of the Province of Westland, and it is fitting and encouraging that the central idea should he to point the way to a golden future. In the language of the admirable prospectus, “the Exhibition has been designed, apart from its commemorative purpose, to give manufacturers. producers, and salesmen an opportunity, such as could not otherwise he provided, of displaying their goods tc, the prospective users in a district that has hitherto, by reason of its isolation. been practically tiiiexploited.” That is as it should he. But it must not he forgotten by those who have never yet seen the Coast, that an opportunity is now presented of seeing one of tho genuine scenic glories of the Southern Hemisphere at a cost prohibitive to very few. From Christmas on the forest a ill he in bloom, the weather warm, the cloudless days experiences to he remembered as long as mountains please and river and lake and ocean stir the imagination. As far as can l:o judged, it will cost only from 25 to ;)0 shillings first-class to go from Christchurch to and from Hokitika, so that to add the southern forests, and the glacier will be possible to people of (piite moderate means. 'I he Railway Department, must, of course, in the meantime, provide an up-to-date service from Greymouth down, so that Hie preparations now being made at Hokitika for conveying tourists to remoter parts of the province will not he nullified by trains running ten miles an hour. Naturally, it will not lie easy to provide accommodation during the rush period about Christinas and New Year, but the orders placed for blankets. and the canvass made of private houses willing to accept guests, inspire confidence. Business people have till Saturday, October 20th., to secure the space they require—six more weeks today. Families and tourists have a slightly longer time in which to make up their minds about going to Westland or going somewhere else for Christmas; lint even they have not unlimited time, and if “Westward Ho!’’ is their filial decision, they "ill he unwise to leave the hooking of accommodation to too late an hour.