Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1900. The Vice-Regal Visit.

Manawatu Herald, 28 July 1900, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, JULY 28, 1900. The Vice-Regal Visit.

On Monday we trust the weather will favour us with its best sample as that is all that is needed to make the visit of the Governor, and the Premier a great success. Everyone connected ■with the affair has done his best, and no man can do more. The townspeople* have at last, greatly

to their credit, determined on having a gala day and in attending both functions, the opening of the bridge, and the luncheon. This is as it should be, and a very little reflection will show how important it is to our status as a borough that it should be so. We have not had a visit from Governor of the Colony since Sir ioorge Bowen visited us, sometime about 1870, therefore as vice-regal visits resemble the proverbial angel's visits, they should, as our old friend Captain Cuttle would remark, "be made a note of ". Not only that but the demonstration will draw visitors from outside, and the warmth, loyalty, and appearance of the inhabitants will have much weight in impressing them with its importance. At times we have been forced to remark that the inhabitants of Foxton think less of their town than outsiders do, and there is no doubt but that in the past the inhabitants have never striven to put its best face forwards, and the occasion and the cause should impel them to act differently on Monday. Foxton has a very valuable industry at its door, has a most useful river making it the port of the district, and is in a very substantial position, so that there could not be a better time to make a holiday and treat our visitors most hospitably and heartily and show ourselves to the best possible advantage. We are going to look upon the completion of the Wirokine bridge as an act that has cut away the idea of the isolation of this town, and shall look upon it as the first advance of a mora enlightened and up-to-date method of progression to be adopted for the future by our representative men. It may not act that way without public pressure, but if that was given & new life and new progress would be the satisfactory result. We trust the people and look to them to -ecure the advantages that can be secured by life in public bodies as against the dulness arising from careless inertness. Should this be accomplished the opening of the Wirokino bridge will be a red-letter day in the history of our town.