WEST COAST ENTERPRISE

Hokitika Guardian, 4 December 1923, Page 4

WEST COAST ENTERPRISE

(‘‘Lyttelton Timas.") From the progress report that eoines from the Hokitika correspondent of the Lyttelton Times. the paper says editorially that it would he seen that the pood people of the historic West Coast centre are avranpilte quite an amhitious Exhihtioii. AA e have no doubt that this affair which will he opened about the middle ol December and he kept- running for several weeks, will do lnucli to lilt the Coast out of the comparative obscurity which ii lias hitherto suffered, principally through being isolated. The completion of the Alidland Railway brines, the West Coast into touch with the rest of Xew Zealand, and we are sure that it is sensible to make early celebration of the fact by boldine an Industrial Exhibition. This show will, of course, have very much more than local interest and importance. There will he substantial displays by all the principal industries of the Coast, -as a foundation, hut these will he supplemented by poods from various parts of Xew Zealand, so that altogether the Exhibition will rank among the principal enterprises of the kind in the history of the Dominion The Coast has a great deal to show t’ne rest of Xew Zealand by wav of its own special industrie-.

while it nhn has much to learn from other districts. There is no dmihi that with the completion ot the railway across the island a new era is beginning for the \A c.-d Coast—an era of large development and prosperity. The Exhibition at Hokitika will serve to mark the beginning of this forward movement. !l will enlarge public knowledge of the productivity and resources of the Coast ; it will show the tin-, rest of Xew Zealand that I In-re is a spirit of progress and enterprise across the ranges: and il will bring West Coasters into closer contact with the general community of the Dominion than they have been la-loro, lo the benefit of all concerned. Very many people from Canterbury, in particular. will visit Hokitika during the currency of the Exhibition, and not a few of them will take I,he onpuri unit v of sampling the majestic scenery of ,South Westland. In our opinion, that is a. region which in the very near future will attract an increasing flow of tourists. The- Exhibition will give a fillip lo this movement. incidentally, hut principally it will advertise the too-lltt le-known resources of the fertile West Coast.