Town Planning.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 24, 28 January 1914, Page 5

Town Planning.

STRATFORD AND DISTRICT.

A SOUTHERN TRIBUTE. Speaking at the Burns celebration ceremony in the Town Hall on Monday night, Mr J. Craigie, M.P. for Timarn, referred in eulogistic terms to the country bordering on Stratford, particularly, and to the North Island, generally. Coming from such a source, the remarks must he considered highly complimentary and well worth publication. Mr Craigie is a colonist of over forty years’ standing, and a keen observer; and, it must be mentioned that while expatiating on the merits and future prospects of these parts, he fails not by one jot in his allegiance to the land of his adoption in the South, in the Canterbury Plains, in the part where the prosperous and his own beloved town of Tim am is the centre. “Yours is a very fine country,” he said, and lie thanked Mr Kennedy, the popular chief of the Scottish Society for the opportunity of seeing so much of it during his stay; and he continued: “For every square mile, 1 consider, it is one of the most beau- [ tiful and prosperous in New Zealand. It was purchased for about £5 an acre, and is now worth anything from £4O to £SO to £6O an acre. If I had not been wasting my time in South Canterbury as I have been—- ■ tins with a smile) —and I had. com© up here, I would have been a “big bug”—like yourselves. (Laughter and applause.) There is no doubt about it, Xew Zealand is destined to be a very fine country, and is destined to be one of the brightest gems of the British Empire. In Stratford you have got very many valuable assets —assets in the shape of a great lumber of beautiful spaces. The groundwork is here. You have Mount Egmont—it will be found to ho a great asset; you have a lovely stream, the Patea, running through your town—you should be able to make about it many picturesque walks; then there is your park—what a wealth of beautification opens out for you there to exploit. We try to make Timaru such as to attract the people, and it is to your benefit to do so too. Our Caroline Bay has been made a benefit to the town, but '.t lias taken money to do it; still the imount spent upon it will be returnid threefold. My advice to you is: Try to beautify the Park. You can make some lovely walks. You canict make it all you desire all at mice, but do something in that direction each year. Agitate your Borough Council to help the Beautifying Association, and in the end you will make a place of it, and in the future ■t will he a very beautiful place. I mn impressed with it. Yours is a fertile country. Stratford will grow, and I am sure will be a very important town in the future. A great thing is to have good citizens, patriotic? and loyal, who will try to do their duty to the town while they live, so that posterity, at all events, will have the benefits of what you do today.” *

It will not be surprising in the least to know that the speaker resumed his seat amid hearty ac- . laraation.