Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, MARCH, 23, 1909 MR DONNE’S APPOINTMENT.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4389, 23 March 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News

TUESDAY, MARCH, 23, 1909 MR DONNE’S APPOINTMENT.

This above all —to thine own self be true, And it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

To Te Aroha, the idea of a Tourist Department minus Mr Donne is an institution which it will take some mental re-adjustment to adapt oneself to. Mr Donne was Superintendent of the Department of Tourist and Health Resorts when Te Aroha was in a comparatively primitive state, certainly years before the Domain had begun to assume anything like its present state of cultivated charm. To all who have come into personal contact with Mr Donne the same impression concerning his energy and ability must have made itself felt —perhaps his massive and decisive signature is one of the best expositions of his business ability and enterprise. Though born in Australia he is practically a New Zealander, and his enthusiasm for the beauties of our natural scenery is just one of those touches which, added to marked business ability, go to make up a thoroughly practical, yet thoroughly manly personality. Mr Donne’s knowledge of his present department has not been gained merely by travelling first-class to snug resorts, he possesses the true traveller’s instinct for the less frequented routes, and the more remote beauties of nature’s grand solitudes. At the same time Mr Donne has that appreciation of the merit of cultivated lawns and terraces and gardens which has been shown in the interest he has displayed in the beautification of our Te Aroha Domain.

Mr Donne’s new appointment, it may safely be predicted, will be a very good thing for the Dominion. His experience as Secretary to the Industries and Commerce Department through years of office has been an invaluable education for the new responsibilities which he will now assume as British Trade Representa tive and Immigration Agent. The fact that he was appointed to represent New Zealand at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (The St. Louis Exhibition) and also his tour of Great Britain, Ireland, and the continent of Europe, in connection with the New Zealand Exhibition of 1900-7 have all gone to promote his grasp of the sort of detail which will now require his attention. At the same time his appointment to the work of sole commissioner to arrange for the transport and accommodation of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York during their visit to the Dominion, would enable him successfully to undertake any duties of a character involving similar responsibilities again. We cannot imagine there being any somnolence about the portion of* the departmental duties apportioned to Mr Donne. We shall look for increased light on all those matters of trade which affect the Dominion so closely. To such questions as co operative marketing of our wool and butter, also to such questions as to whether or no the Dominion might be more cheaply supplied with telephones, so as to increase the chance of the back blocks being ultimately efficiently served in the matter of telephone accommodation, he will doubtless give his attention, as-to the thousand and one other matters which so immediately affect our internal development and commercial expansion. With regard to immigration matters we shall look for great assistance. JMr Donne knows as well as every individual Dominioner of us, that the pioneer days of New Zealand are by no means a thing of the past, and that in the present <

day, just as truly as in the days of which our fathers speak, the sort of men to make a success of Dominion life are the men of pioneer blood, of pioneer grit. There is a false idea abroad that the hard foundation work of the country is now done, and that present day immigrants may begin where our fathers and mothers left off. It is nothing at all of the sort. True a great deal has been done, large portions of the country are now under cultivation, and cities have arisen as the cenires to all this development- But the Dominion is not for all that a coun-

try which is prepared to absorb any amount of city population by way of relieving the congestion which the blind protective policy of the old land has engendered there. We still require pioneers by way of immigrants, men of nerve and muscle, men of adaptability and endurance. And though we do not wish to be unneighbourly to our kin across the seas, we feel that it is only fair that they should be given a true idea of what this country has to offer by way of conditions and employment to those who seek to enter here. Mr Donne will no doubt do much to disabuse the British popular mind of its mistaken idea on this point. We wish Mr Donne every felicity and success in his new appointment.