EXTENSIVE TOUR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 June 1938, Page 6

EXTENSIVE TOUR

PRIME MINISTER VISITING MANY TOWNS.

CIVIC RECEPTION TO BE GIVEN IN MASTERTON. '

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 8.

Arrangements have been completed for a tour next week of the southern part of the North Island by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage. He will visit approximately 40 towns and townships in the Wellington, Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay provinces.

The Prime Minister, who will be accompanied by the Minister of Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb, will leave Wellington by car on Monday morning for Feilding. The places to be visited include Feilding, Palmerston North, Wanganui, Hawera, Stratford, Dannevirke, Eketahuna and Mauriceville. On his arrival in Masterton on Saturday, June 18, Mr Savage will be accorded a civic reception and in the evening will attend a Labour Party social. The party will return to Wellington on Sunday, June 19. “The main purpose of my tour.” said Mr Savage last evening, “is to meet the people and to shake hands with them in appreciation of their friendship. Many districts have invited me during the past two years and a half to make a visit, but hitherto it has been impossible to respond to their kindness. It is not easy to get away from headquarters in Wellington, and even now it is necessary to arrange a very hurried tour of the provinces nearest to the capital. I am looking forward with keen interest to the opportunity of seeing the countryside generally and having a talk face to face with the people. In view of the hurried nature of the tour I am sorry that it is impossible for me to receive any official deputations. This does not mean that no interest will be taken in the needs of the various districts and their scope for greater development. I mean to see for myself the conditions of life in the country proper and to note the measure of progress and prosperity.”