WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 11 March 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE ROYAL VISIT. A TR rUMPIIAXT TOUR. (Special to “ Guardian.”) j AYELLLIXDTOX. .Man'll S. The Duke and Duchess have conic and seen and conquered. Ihe capital city lias fallen at their feet. It lias cheered them, exchanged smiles with them, shaken them hv the hand and cheered them again. For another decade there will he to Wellington only one Duke and one Duchess, just ac there can he only one King and one Queen. The personal clement, after all. counts for a great deal in the nation’s loyalty, and never before has it been more admirably expressed than it has been during the present royal tour. The Duke and Duchess stepped ■at once into the hearts of the community, not by virtue of their high estate or by the glamour of tradition, hut by their simple cordial acceptance of the warm-hearted welcome extended to them by n gladdened people. V, ellington ‘'has done itsell proud 1 during thu° stay of the visitors here. Up to hist night the weather was simply ideal for the various gatherings and celebrations with which the Duke and Duchess identified themselves, and even to-day "the rain is holding oil is if it sensed its duty to the occasion anil its significance. The “young people,” as the crowds will persist in styling the Royal visitors, will leave here at live o’clock to-morrow morning to repeat in the South the triumphs they have achieved in the North. A SRLENDTD AC! 11KV EMU XT. Finding its text in the opening ol the Truby King Karilauo Hospital hy the Duchess of York yesterday, the “Dominion” this morning pays a high tribute to the “splendid achievement” of Sir Truby King in the wide [field of child welfare. “The whole 'strength and virtue of the movement,” it says, “resides in the I act that it is a simple reversion, scientifically directed, to the fnndanienhil laws ol nature from which, in the course of generations, there had been a gradual and insidious departure. By his efforts. Sir Truby King has ennobled the function of motherhood, and secured public recognition of its responsibilities. From the inculcation of sound and simple rules in infant dieting to scientific instruction in the principles of moifhercr.ift was a logical step. It is in the organisation of ail educative svstem for this that the later energies ~'f the founder of the Blanket movement have been ciiicily directed. I lieie can be no greater reward lor public service that the unreserved appreciation of its beneficiaries, land no greater compliment to its value than Uhe recognition accorded it by other ce.tintries. Of these two testimonials —one national, the other international——Sir Truby King has been the honoured • lnd worthy recipient.” Speaking informally to-day Sir Truby King .‘“id he was repaid many times over for the toil and discouragement of the early days of his campaign hy the ready and generous assistance that had been given him when his purpose was recognised and understood. MAKING HISTORY. Palmerston North a week or two ago celebrated the jubilee of its incorporation as a borough and several of the newspapers in the North waxed eloquent over the vision ‘and courage of like pioneers who had set about hewing a great inland city out of dense virgin bush. Now .Mr Henry Bodley, a gentleman who spares time from a big business to sot the newspapers right on little matters ol this kind, dashes aside more than lidlf the picturesque rutma’iice. ‘" A oars ng>>, ■ lie writes, “tire had been through that • district from the sand dunes of Oroun to the Gorge. T was there in 1573 and split sleepers out of dead totnr'v, 111 sleepers out of one stump. I nun the Square to Terrace End was absolutely void of timber of any sort. The opening was apparently a natural clearing, with access only and entirely from Napier. Teams came in Irani Napier and invariably went back empty. was ail oasis in a desert and tho fire Unit- m ule it so must have been before the while man’s time.” Of course any one of half a dozen hooks of reference would have told the authors of the romance that .Palmerston .North was laid out on a natural clearing that had existed for several centuries, if not since the upheaval of X'cw Zealand from the floor of Ihe Pacific. “A riS’OI DTE CONTROL.” The “Evening Post." which has maintained a strictly judicial .attitude throughout the “absolute control” controversy is taking alarm at the accumulation, of New Zealand butter in store in London. “When the parUunentnry session closed last year it became evident," it says, “that New Zealand was committed to at least one season.’:; experience with the Xew Zealand Dairy Produce Board’s ‘absolute control’ of exported dairy produce: arid, that being the case, there arose a tendency, even among many of the doubters, to give the experiment ‘a fair run,’ witli a minimum of embarrassment to the Board. But this attitude of reserved judgment must not be construed into one of approval. The New Zealand Dairy Produce Board is on its trial, and what might be called the silent voter section of public opinion is watching with interest, not unmixed with anxiety, to see whether the Board can clean up its selling season without the huge carry-over of store butter which it so sweepingly condemned in l!)2t>, when the responsible parties were ‘holding’ dairy companies.” The market movements at the moment do not suggest that the Board will easily make good, and the Prime .Minister’s statement on the subject still has to come.