Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1943. BLACKING OUT THE WAIRARAPA.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1943. BLACKING OUT THE WAIRARAPA.

JT is hardly to be supposed that there is a malign official conspiracy to place an. extinguisher over Masterton and the Wairarapa and to pretend that they do not exist. Under administrative methods and arrangements for which successive governments, including the one at present in office, have been responsible, however, the Wairarapa and its principal centie are being treated precisely as if a conspiracy of that kind were being carried ruthlessly to its limits.

The latest example in point is the Liberty Loan campaign, in the conduct of which lists issued from the central headquarters in Wellington make no mention of the Wairarapa or of any of its towns. A list issued from Wellington a few days ago included towns much smaller than Masterton, in which the amounts subscribed to the loan were far below the Masterton total, but Masterton and the rest of the Wairarapa were ignored, or to be quite exact, the Wairarapa contribution was included as an unspecified item in the figures for the Wellington postal district.

Obviously returns compiled on this basis are fantastically misleading and could hardly be improved upon if they were designed fo suppress and discourage a wholesome community spirit. National returns should show accurately on a comparative basis what is being done in each division of the Dominion and certainly should not bury the realities in. figures relating to a vaguely indicated postal or provincial area.

What is happening in regard to the Liberty Loan is typical of a good deal of other departmental procedure where the Wairarapa is concerned. For instance, it was observed yesterday by the Mayor of Masterton (Mr T. Jordan) that for years he had been protesting, without result, against the policy of the Post and Telegraph Department in including Wairarapa figures in Wellington returns.

As has been said, this official blackout of the Wairarapa* and its principal centre is not to be attributed to malignity. It is no doubt due to the inability of some of our bureaucrats to climb, unassisted, out of the groove in which they are accustomed to pursue their placid and unadventurous waj. It is more than time to make an end of this foolishness, so that the people of the Wairarapa may obtain the recognition to which as a community they are entitled.