The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, September 24, 1910. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 896, 24 September 1910, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, September 24, 1910. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Devin’s progressive Mayor recently convened a public meeting to discuss certain proposals which had for their object the advancement of the town. Among other subjects discussed were the prospecting of the Tararuas, closer settlement, and the cultivation of beet root for sugar manufacturing purposes. Special committees were set up, and a secretary appointed. At a meeting of the closer settlement committee it was the unanimous opinion that a closer subdivision of several large blocks near the town was highly desirable, and a resolution was framed and carried that the Government Commissioner should inspect several blocks specified, aggregating 18,499 acres, with a view to their acquisition by the Government for closer settlement. Devin’s attitude in this respect could with advantage be copied by Foxton. There are certain areas of land within a few miles of Foxton that could be sub-divided and made much more reproductive than at present.

The public meeting convened by the Mayor for Thursday night to consider what steps be taken to celebrate Dominion Day was attended by His Worship the Mayor, the local bandmaster, the captain and a lieutenant of the school cadets, and of course, a representative of the press. One would need to have a pretty good stretch of imagination to call this a representative gathering and as so few attended to discuss the way in which New Zealand’s elevation to the rank of a Dominon should be celebrated is proof positive that very few of our local residents care a tinker’s cuss whether they live in a Dominion or only in an ordinary every day garden variety of colony. The most of them look upon the celebration as a means of granting an additional holiday to those employed in Government offices and ask in somewhat indignant terms why the telegraph and postal arrangements, etc., throughout New Zealand should be interfered with by the celebration of a day of which not one in a hundred thinks of, let alone cares about. Considering the feeling of the Foxton citizens no set programme was laid down, the captain of the school cadets stating they would celebrate the occasion in their own way ; the band will discourse appropriate music in the Main Street in the evening and it is the intenl’on of the Mayor to invite the business people and others to display bunting, etc., on this

auspicious occasion. Thus, Dominion Day will be celebrated locally.

The local Harbour Board has decided to hold its meetings alternately in Foxton and Palmerston North. This course was decided upon to suit the convenience of members, it being stated that there would be no trouble in getting a quorum for meetings at Palmerston North. Thursday’s experience hardly bore out this contention as at the time appointed for the meeting, 12 o’clock, only three members were in attendance and the Chairman had to motor round the town to find another member in order that business might be proceeded with. His mission was successful, and the meeting was commenced something like three-quarters of an hour after the appointed time.