The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1917. GOOD ENOUGH FOR TAIHAPE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 30 April 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1917. GOOD ENOUGH FOR TAIHAPE.

(With which is incorporated The Tai hape Post and Waimarino News).

The lack of knowledge regarding this town and its surrounding districts displayed almost daily by public and quasi-public officials is amazing. It makes on e wonder whether these officials ever go any farther than from their bed to their office chair and back again, fcr they seem to think that since they reached the pinnacle of their ambitions the world; or at least, New Zealand, has stagnated with them. They have" not widened" either their scope of knowledge or vision; they have failed to see that while they are sitting tight everything has grown around them, and because complaints and growls fall thicker and thicker upon i-'iem they attribute it rather to the porverseness and crassness of the worsl in human nature than to the real and essential needs of a progressive people. When these men and departments commenced to hibernate, ii is probable that Taihape was not so populous or important a business v.-rAro as it is to-day; but whip they yli'?P ' ! -' town an - district is growiti:.;. N T ow, if these men are brought, to their senses they Ireamily tell ycu: "That is god en ;ugh for Taihape." We reply that oil' r towns of more acreage and less people by •hundreds from whose territory the volume of business ha s no comparison to that of Taihape, have all tli > conven ieuo.eg which we ar e asking for. ami they contradict us point-blank. While we have men to perpetuate old conditions what hope is there for this dis-

trict to obtain what have been hitherto regarded as necessities in all other districts. We refer these officials to the census returns, to the statistics of production, to the Municipal Handbook, but, apparently, they have no belief in Government publications. We are using rather severe sentences, but we maintain that they are justified to an extreme. We send away nearly half a million's worth of wool from this territory besides meat and stock in proportion, and yet the men who do this are left in ignorance about "Land Tax Returns" and "Income Tax Returns." We were positively pestered with inquiries about these returns last week, by settlers who said somebody had told them that an advertisement about the subject had appeared in Wellington, stating that the usual posted notices would not be sent. This, surely, is not the wish of the Government. These men are entitled to some notification, as •hitherto, through the columns of their newspaper. We published the news paragraph, presumably emanating from the taxation Department, and that only added to the number of inquiries which came along. Our postal arrangements are as stupid and unsatisfactory as they well can be, but our settlers are putting up with almost unbearable inconvenience- and loss because they think it is the result of the war. Of course we know it is nothing of the kind; it is to some extent the employment of men who are quite unfitted for the work they contract to do. The last man to tell us "It is good enough for Taihape" is the manager of the Press Association. It is not unreasonable to expect that men in positions would acquire information which seems essential to the carrying on of the work involved. Without any notice of alteration or curtailment of our mail service, this journal finds its cable and telegraphic service halved on three days a week. It appeals to the Postal Department, then to the Minister of Railways, who has promised us his most carelul consideration. Meanwhile the Press Association is approached, but nothing can be got from that' quarter. It is a pleasing fact thui. we meet with more consideration and courtesy from the Minister himself than we have encountered anywhere else. B'ut we cannot understand the Press Assocition; the Taihape Daily Times' Proprietors know that this district is of such importance a s to constitute a demand for the best cable service next to that taken by the four chief city newspapers, and they enter into a contract for such a service, and they pay for such a service. Yet in a case of this, kind when the services i s mutilated by the stoppage of trains, nothing can be done, and we are told it is good.enough for Taihape. For the information of those officials who do not yeti realise tn e ract, we would remind them that Taihape, though not the largest in acreage, is the most populous borough from Feilding to Hamilton, .on the Main Trunk Line; that from Utiku, six miles southward to Mataroa, seven miles northward, residences are continuous; that Taihape serves a back country forty miles north, east and west, and twenty miles south, these figures being low do not nearly indicate the territory the settlers of which are served from Taihape. It is solely in the interest of th e people of this great district that we would urge upon the heads of Departments not to overlook claims that should need no advocating. Notifications' are sent to news-

papers in much less populous centres while Taihape settlers are overlooked. This statement can be verified by consultation of the Municipal Handbook and the records of the Advertising Department. Places that are stagnating receive all notices, while a virite, rap-idly-growing territory like Tail-ape is turned down. W e can scarcely blame hard-worked officials in Wellington, however, when the head of the Press Association suggests that "It is good enough for Taihape."