OUR DREADNOUGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 274, 11 April 1913, Page 4

OUR DREADNOUGHT.

■ 'J lie preliminary arrangements that are ' being made by the Railway Department for the despatch of a special train to i 'Wellington for the benefit of the schol- ; astic profession and the school children, ! on April 21, emphatically suggest tliat, | so far as Now Plymouth is concerned, • we are not t.o .have a visit from the i battleship Now Zealand.-- -.The , exfiet 1 itinerary of the vessel has not yet' been published, but Government Departments i have a probably very necessary habit of getting hold of early information, anil the Railway Department would hardly be making tlhr provision it is if there was any prcispect ')>f ,our; gift to the' nation being seen at our port. We must, ; of course, possess our souls in patience ' in the meantime,, and it is obviously imi possible for the New Zealand during her limited stay to visit every port in the 1 Dominion. But we should have thought that .the-/historic associations of Taranaki would have weighed in arranging the itinerary, and that some of the larger centres might have been cut short of a day or two for the sake of some of the smaller ones. After all, the individual contribution towards the cost of this magnificent gift to the Empire fell jufct a's heavily on the people of Oakiira, as it did upon those of Wellington. «nd. whilst we cannot expect the battleship to travel overland to every outlying township and hamlet, we should be allowed to fairly anticipate that' she would visit every important port, and so provide an opportunity for as many as possible of those who assisted to build her to inspect her. We hope that the Mayor and our Parliamentary members and the heads of local bodies will get busy." and see if their united efforts cannot persuade the powers that lie to at least bring our "own battleship into the roadstead for a day.