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Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 57, 14 March 1907, Page 2

A WAIL I'liOAl Mr Henry IVtnlon, 1,,, r ,l yi ilyill . nf Melbourne, uli |,. j M Xew Zealand, did lis the honor of Ijvinir d lighted Villi what In' saw. Jle patted the country on tiK! back in a way that a magnate of his magnitude Jiiiturall•. would feel it incumbent on him to do. Probably lie had something t 0 (11l t |,. at disagreed with him on liis return lo the banks of tin- in itu, for In.' immediately rein.liked to thr lirsl pressman who snv 'li" 1 that the' couutrv wns tilled with simtJl-iniiiyjoU people, Mild (hat till' mainstay of the colnnv was its Tourist Department, X™ Zealanders won't niiuJ being called sinull-iiiiiided as much as being accused g of deriving; any capital or advantage from the fuur.sl iJcpurtment. The Tourist Department is a doomed department, an expensive exercsencc, a worthless pinch-beck organisation intended mainly as a sanctuary for a faithlul many. To call it ;l "mainstay" is an acknowledgment In- the -Mayor of Melbourne thai he knows nothing about his subject. When the very nocortsary u.so of tLu pruning knife ♦ tiki's j'litee tin.- Touijist Department will be wiju'ij out for a start. Tin; <-x----]KUisi\(? nnmi of Melbourne's "".Mayor wasirt wulo enough to ijrasp this fad:, but still we would never be rude enough to call i,i s lordship "sma.fr minded.' It is a regrcLtabie thing > that. Australia lias fallen so low as to copy „\cw Zealand in particular, I'mto copy a sniall-minded people is naturally to admit small-mindedness in the copyists. .Mr W'eedoii may have contused the size of the country with the size of its thinking machinery, or have masoned that .110 countrv so* small as : Aw Zen land could possibly have brains. Australia,, and particularly Victoria, which has the honor of being the State where .Mr Uec.lon lives, had a sinccrer admiration for the late .Mr Seddou than it had for any public man then i or now in Australian Municipal, .State 01 tederal politcs. .Mr Seildon undoubtedly set the example of .-small or large-mindedncss as the case may have been to the people of this colony and if what Air Wcedon says is true, Australinns generally admire New Zealand small-mindedness more than Australian large-mindedness. As a matter of fact, the .New Zealunder lias a quite phenomenal Jurt for mind-expansion. Everyone li'oin the liumblest to; Hie most exalted di-cusses questions a (let t iilg not only .New Zealand, but the earth. >'e\y Zealand is but a uroup of small islands, yet thinks like a continent. Who does not remember the Saddler:-.' I'niou in some wny-back West t.oast town passing a vote of censure on the Czar of ltussia? .Mr Weetlou accuses us of being too self-eon I enteil. This is a terrible crime. Why should ■ we not go about with faces as long as a lawyer's bill of costs and lips hang- j ing down like saddle-Haps? There is . every reason why we should grizzle. ] I'or instance, the iast live months, an- , cording to the Acting-Premier, have been the most linancially successful in the history of the country. Apart lrom losses and inconveniences caused by natural visitations, the counjtiV has progressed along right lines, ami even though there happened to lie a small cloud or two in the horizon there i< no inn need for the saddle 'lap or I lie bill-of-co-ts maintenance. '' We do not believe that Xew Zealaiiders ( Mould cease to smile even though ihe pinch came. The pinch would come, , 011 the reasoning of dial gveal man, ' Mr Weedon, if the niain.-tfty of the country, the Tourist Department, elos- .. Ed up. Supposing (lie TourislUepartmcnl. closes up and tries us?