The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1927. WEST MEETS EAST.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1927. WEST MEETS EAST.

There is to be a friendly invasion of the West Coast on Monday by an East Coast party of farmers from Ashburton and intermediate places. The visitors will be sure of a cordial welcome, not only because it is the custom of the Coast si to act, but also as some attempt to return the many kindnesses which the East Coasters offered the West Coasters when they were lately paying a visit to Canterbury fields and pastures new. Our visiting friends, we hope, also, will be favored by good weather as a means to give a wider outlook of those natural features so cßs*

tiMotive of the district, and which impressed visitors because ol their scenic grandeur. Our friends from the East fettling to tlu> West will pass from an essentially farming territory to a country famous for its mining and milling, rather than its pastoral production. Gold-mining was the .special lure which sixty years and more ago. drew so great a train of papulation to New Zealand and hastened tlio settlement of the country very materially. Mining was a great aid in helping sell lenient and development in Canterbury, ami though the snow-clad mountains separaated the two Coasts, East and West were very closely identified in those days both oliieiaily and commercially. The days of old were great producing times in the matter ol mineral wealth, and Canterbury had the opportunity of sharing in the l usiness resulting. Since the Alns 'wore pierced and the steel hand forged to link the Coasts by rail, great (jiianlit ios of timber'have been

sent to tlic other side, while coal from the Coast is also in great demand‘across tile ranges. In a much smaller way. due t:> the restricted production. Canterbury has been a market for our produce. both live and dead. But limited though it has lieeii. the quality has been there to bespeak the value and virtues of the pastures. S'o the West Coast is not by any moans unknown to the East Coast, and this intimacy c<mi- , hined with other opportunities for intimate relations, lias created a very friendly ami neighbourly spirit between the two peoples. It is said when the Coasters went, over recently to Ashburton and elsewhere, and were the guests of their newly found farmer friends, the East Coasters were surprised somewhat to find the Westerners, not only a presentable band, but also a temperate band. The Coast in Ilia early days seemed to have developed a reputation which even at this length of time has not been lived down. At all events the sample sent across lately managed to make a good reputation for themselves by the impression created among their hosts. This is one advantage of these reciprocal visits and not the least important, as in the world at large, character counts for a. great deal, and it is well indeed to see that the oast has been able to maintain a character and a reputation in every way creditable to the people as a. class. Well, our visiting friends, we hope will find us as hospitable hero ns our representatives were commendable over there, and in going about the district and seeing and being seen, wo trust they will carry away with them a still enhanced opinion not only of the people, hut the place also. Speaking of West-land as a very important part of the West Coast, we can assure the visitors that the country is sound and progressive. It has been held hack for years by the lack of means of communication. There are still -parts of the district suffering: from that handicap. But Westland is coining into its own. tin- people here have confidence in the place and its future. Its resources are still largely undeveloped, hut the day must come when a much blighter time will be in store for the place. The great thing is that the people established here have faith in the place, and regard its future with a certainty as the country becomes opened up and facilities for transport improve. Westland can add enormously to its production—that alone assures a great future for the place.