THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1929. PAEROA AS KEY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5441, 28 June 1929, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1929. PAEROA AS KEY.

During the last two weeks the establishing of two new business firms in Paeroa has been recorded in these columns. In the same period two firms of international and one of Dominion importance have stationed representatives in Paeroa with the idea of making this town the headquarters for an extensive district embracing many towns. This week is to be recorded the establishing of another business. Added to that, the “Hauraki Plains Gazette” has it on good authority that something out of the ordinary for Paeroa is going to take place in one branch of trade shortly, the nature of which it is not permissible for the moment to make public. However, it is an outside firm of considerable importance and standing which, after extensive inquiries and exhaustive investigations, has realised what the “Hauraki Plains Gazette” has consistently and repeatedly pointed out and stressed upon—that Paeroa holds the key position. The proprietor of the business actually established here last week informed a representative of this paper that he decided on Paeroa after years of travelling from Rotorua northward and Tauranga westward. A thorough business canvass over the whole of that area recently served to convince him by actual facts that Paeroa held the key position to all the territory mentioned. In common with the firms which have stationed their representatives in Paema, it is the proprietor’s intention to make this town a headquarters from whence to work the sur rounding country and nearby towns. It stands to reason that firms of international repute and world-wide ramifications, together with nearer al home shrewd, level-headed business men, would not select Paeroa unless they had very good reasons for doing so. Trade is hard to get these days, and harder still it is to get money; therefore, in the establishment of branches or the stationing of representatives, firms have to make very sure of their ground and weigh carefully the claims of every town before deciding on one. By deciding on Paeroa they announce in a decisive manner to all and sundry that it holds the premier pos-tion. Beyond argument, Paeroa is situated in the most commanding position of potential com?nercial importance. It has everything in its favour, as this paper has so constantly stated and elaborated upon. Far be it from the intention of raising false hopes : nothing wonderful is going to happen all of a sudden ; no sudden boom to be pricked eventually like a South Sea bubble, leaving the town in the backwash of commercial progress, but development gradual, sound, and lasting, as befits a key centre of Paeroa’s attributes. While talking of developing prosperity the other side of the picture must not be forgotten. There remains the question of unemployment in our midst to-day. But this, unfortunately, is a question which affects every town, large or small, in New Zealand to-day, and even the countryside ; and the way Paeroa is tackling the problem only goes to further illustrate how really sound and healthy a state the town is in. No other town in the whole of the Dominion has grappled with the matter on their own and so constructively as has Paeroa. The “Hauraki Plains Gazette” for many years—in fact,

ever since it has been in existence — has propounded Paeroa as the key, and all through the lean adverse years experienced by the town after the cessation of mining prophesied success and prosperity in the future. It would seem now that outsiders, too, have come to realise what this paper has been pointing out all along, and that before long Paeroa will be firmly established beyond dispute in its rightful category as purchasing and distributing centre for a very wide and rich area.