NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4326, 5 October 1921, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A WAY THEY HAVE IN PUTARURU.

There’s a real live organisation in Putaruru, glorying in the grandiloquent title, “The Putaruru District Development Board.” It is a body the moving spirits of which abe full of pep and ginger, and they make things go with the hum of steady and strong speed. They are alive to all the big things that matter, and have already achieved notable successes for their town and district. When the Thames Valley Electric Power Board secured i,ts loan on the London market, the Putaruru Board at once sent in a honeyed letter of congratulation, at the same time getting the business oar in by remarking that Putaruru hoped, now that finance was assured, the reticulation would proceed throughout the Board’s whole area. "Gf course,” Secretary G. G. Martin naively continued, “our interest ’<n the mattier is more particularly the Putaruru district.” The abovenamed letter was dated September 7. On September 26 a real live wire came along, demanding to know why no poles had yet been stent

tp Putaruru, and asking why, according to press reports, thp works policy did not include the reticulation of Putaruru district, despite the .chairman’s promise to a meeting of- ratepayers at Putaruru that the work w.ould be done as soon as funds wtere available. The letter added that Messrs H. W. Bullock and G. G. Alcorn would attend the next meeting as a deputation From the Board. We are not greatly concerned witn the merits or demerits of Putaruru’s claims, but we do submit that the Putaruru District Development Board is a splendid organisation for boosting the Putaruru district. The “Gazette” some time ago advocated the formation of a Thames Valley and Hauraki Plains Progressive League, on the lines of thle Canterbury Progress League, so that Morrinsvi.lle, Te Aroha, Paeroa, and Thames could pull together and boost the who.le magnificent Valley and the Plains, and thus counteract the adverse pull of the Waikato, or rather of Hamilton. But it seems that all our live wire men are too busy already on power boards, county councils, borough councils, etc., to adopt the wise and weighty way they have in Putaruru —more’s the pity. Until th/e leading men ir. the Valley do see with the larger vision, and cease the small and useless effort to prosper at the expense of each other,, this superbly rich territory will always b,e placed a,t a comparative disadvantage. Since the above was written, the Paeroa Chamber of Commerce —at last night’s meeting—has decided to take the initial steps towards the formation of a Thames Valltey and Hauraki Plains Progress League.