AS OTHERS SEE US.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10266, 19 June 1911, Page 5

AS OTHERS SEE US.

A VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS OF MASTERTON.

Speaking to a representative of the Age, Mr A. J. Stallworthy, editbr of the "Wairoa Bell and Northern Advertiser," a North Auckland newspaper of 30 years standing, said that the statement made in some other parts of the Dominion that "No-License had. knocked the bottom out of Masterton," was a libel on this splendid town, the natural advantages of which,he says, are so obviously full of great potentialities for the future. He understood the testimony of the majority of most of the business men of the town was in favour of the Reform, but, as affecting the real basis of the prosperity of Masterton this was secondary in importance to the abounding evidences of a great future in the potentialities referred to. A spin into the country would, he said, convince any practical man of this. With so fine a tract of fertile land and so genial a climate, a town of considerable importance must inevitably follow upon the solid prosperity of a large agricultural community. "We have been told," said Mr Stallworthy, "that No-License in Masterton has affected disastrously everything else; it certainly has not affected your climate. This 17th and 18th June, nearing mid-winter, with a crisp, invigorating atmosphere and a warm genial sunshine is a veritable benediction of heaven, which is truly I delightful.'-

"I am a lover of Nature," said our visitor, "and too often in the hustle and complexity of life we do ourselves the injury of forgetting that 't is a great part of God's revelation to man. If there is any genius for poetry inMasterton at all, and I believe there is, I can well imagine how your glorious snow-tipped hills give you a subtle aid in improving your social environments ; for, after all, the vision of the people will ever determine its socialconditions. In the imagination of a people every great reform must, first its spiritual shape before it is crystnlised into tangible.realisation. This may explain how our '"dreamers"" and optimists are so often proved by ' experience to be our most- practical men and statesmen, and why the pessimists of any community fall out of the van of progress. There is a wonderful an J a mighty inspiration in Nature. 'Lift up your eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh your help.' The beautiful prospect towards the mountains round about Masterton cannot fail to inspire in your people great thoughts, and as thought is energy, and great thoughts are great energy, there is, on the very face of Nature here, the promise that your lovely environment will tell in all the ramifications of your Society. One would expect to see here ever-increasing evidences of an evolution towards a noble society in -whose heart -is a. great purpose and to whose life is foreign, every evil thing. When Masterton, and other centres in our fair Dominion, arrive at this stage," said Mr Stallworthy, "we will look'back upon the old-time licensed liquor traffic with utter abhorrence, for it has ever been an evil one, in .which there is no element of social construction. From the necessarily superficial observances associated with a short stay in your midst, I am. bound to say that to my mind, there are abundant evidences that the prohibition of the liquor bar is a great gain to your town, Avbich is one of the 'cleanest' and most cliarmi ing inland centres I have ever visited. You have given a splendid moral impulse by your example to other districts in the Dominion."