Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1943. AS AGAINST STAGNATION.
the meeting held for the purpose • last week, the new Mastertoil Chamber of Commerce was launched in circumstances that promise well for its future. No one can doubt that it is open to an organisation operating on the lines sketched by Mr J. 11. Cunningham on Wednesday evening to do a great deal of useful and helpful'work by which an increasing population in the town and district will benefit greatly. The primary condition of success in the pursuit of these aims is that the Chamber should secure not only the enrolment, but the active continuing support of an adequately large and representative membership. Experience has demonstrated sufficiently that it is not enough that an organisation of this kind should have a fairly large “financial.” membership. What is needed is a large body of members, as widely representative as possible of the community, prepared to give thought and working effort to community enterprise and advancement. Without suggesting for a moment that considerations of narrow self-interest should induce people to join the Chamber of Commerce it may be emphasised fairly that it is very much in the interests of all members of the community that the Chamber should be made a strong and active body of its kind. The alternative plainly is to accept as inevitable at least a measure of stagnation. Masterton and its district are an area of great undeveloped possibilities—an area capable of accommodating a substantially increased population in conditions of life and work as desirable as can be established in any part of New Zealand and very much in advance of those ruling in some parts of the Dominion in which an undue proportion of our existing national population is now massed. A study of town-planning is one of the declared aims of the promoters of the new Chamber. It may be hoped that the organisation will take full account of both town and regional planning in all that it, undertakes for the benefit of the town and district. The development of Masterton is or should be identified with that of the district at large. Whether, for instance, a given factory should be established in Masterton or in some other part of the district, urban or rural, is 'a matter which should be determined in accordance with, the merits of the case and not from any parochial standpoint. The key to a satisfactory treatment of all such questions is to be found in comprehensive town and regional planning, carried out by competent experts. While industrial expansion and the extension of community services and amenities figure prominently in the field of activity that will be open to the new Chamber of Commerce, it should not be forgotten that there are other highly important avenues of development. Masterton as it- stands is remarkable among towns of its size in the number of its secondary schools and in its possession of the Trust Lands Trust endowment, the value of which will expand with the growth of the town. So wide a field of work is opening before the new Chamber that there is much to be said for the proposal that sub-com-mittees of its members should be appointed to study particular problems and submit recommendations. As a whole the organisation plans meantime mapped out are on practical lines and seem well calculated to serve their essential purpose of enabling representatives of all sections of the community to work together in a purposeful and effective way for the advancement of the town and district.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 December 1943, Page 2
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591Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1943. AS AGAINST STAGNATION. Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 December 1943, Page 2
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