Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News SATURDAY, MAT 21, 1898. THE APPROACHING CEREMONY

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2105, 21 May 1898, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News SATURDAY, MAT 21, 1898. THE APPROACHING CEREMONY

Such a letter a& that which appeared j recently in the Auckland evening ; paper, and; which we re-produce to-day, \ affords valuable evidence of. the growling esteem in which, our baths are . held.. From the mud-hole,, described ' by one of our correspondents lately,.of • twenty years ago, to> the splendidly i equipped, bath-house the member for ! the district, the Hon- A. J.. Cadman, i is- to open during the- approaching holiday in- honor of the Qtieen ? S‘ Birth- ; day,.is a vast stride. There is no auch ; thing in the history of, a place so : . richly endowediby nature as Te Aroha is- as,stagnation once the world, at' large awakensto-a sense of the wonder ; working powers concealed in the sparkling thermal, springs welling up perennially at the foot of her- famous hill. The developments the Domain Commissioners have been able to-carry out in the.past with the small means ; at their disposal speak eloquently of a public spirit tempered by a- prudence im administration which historians are united im recognising as one of the ;most distinguishing virtues in the ruleraof a young and growing community. Some of our visitors; from the luxurious centres of European civilization have.complained that the appoin cments, and, arrangements, with ! regard to service and' attendance are : not equal to those associated with the | continental baths- they are acoustomed j to. No ©ne regrets this more heartily 1 than ourselves and we think we may say 1 oh behalf of ,;the Commissioners than ■ they do. We do not fail to recollect, however, that the more famous of the ! continental baths to- which our critics are so fond of referring have been in receipt of the patronage of the wealthy and! leisured, classes of Europe for centuries.. There cam be therefor® no question of comparison in common fairness. Wealthy Europeans making the grand tour of tha colonies, seem, to-

think it becoming to sneer the too 'often; rough and ready nature of many of our cherished institutions : but every well bred man, readily detects the bourgeois' element in such criticisms. We are ready, however to admit, that the conspicuous- and'untiring devotion-, to our interests displayed by such menas the chairman of the Domain Bbard ; (Mr Thomas Gavin), Commissioners Edward’ Gallagher and Knock, and ;in the past Messrs Geo. Wilson, James Mills, Ilott and Crnmpi and*in another walk, but with, no 1 less generosity, Messrs McKee and* Stanley—we are ready to admit, we repeat,, that the labours of these devoted citizens, in the past and in- the present, would never have- achieved' such a splendid 1 result as the most recent addition to our improvements presents, nor brought within promise of immediate fruition so many more for our now- famous Btomaiu without the help of a Government whose lbader. the Other day publicly declared that he-regardedthe-Te Aroha< Domain as-- being public 1 property; and as such worthy of national' support?. --We hwe-inuch ; prudence, energy and! deyotitm; oh' our private citizens, but their olaimi to our gratituda-do not let us overlook what the- Govefhmentv fn whaiis known as its paternal capacity, has done for us, and when their distinguished representative and our own member; in whom, we are all eager torecognise our greatest benefactor, visits us 1 on Tuesday next, let us all, irrespective of party? unite in giving him a loyal and hearty welcome.. The opening of the new baths on-the Queen’s Birthday is » social event ; politics, let us hope, will be rigorously excluded from the programme; Let the proceedings- be marked by unanimity and universal good-will, for we wish it to be a- redletter day im our calendar and a date to which we may all look back as the ‘commencement of a new era off prosperity ; of those ‘ green isles of memory ’ so few and far between in-the dreary retrospecfcdhis sad and disappointing 1 world holdh for 'most of, us.