The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1880

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 558, 2 September 1880, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1880

In about six weeks time, at the latest, we may expect the railway to be opened to Masterton, and it will be nrcessary for the honor and credit of this township to extend some slight hospitality to the gentlemen who will probably take the trouble to come up from Wellington to congratulate us on the successful completion of the link which will _ unite to the Empire City the most important inland township in the. Provincial district, JS T o attempt will be made, we hope, to vie with the somewhat too pretentious display which marked the JWherston jubilee The times now and then are much altered, and it behoves us to be modest in our demonstration. None the less it is necessary for us to offer to visitors on the occasion of the completion of the line a public reception and a luncheon, at which friendly sentiments usual on such events can be reciprocated. We feel certain that the sutlers in this town and neighborhood will desire to do the right thing in the right manner, and that they will need no pressure to perform all that can reasonably be expected from them. Our object in alluding to the subject is not to urge our citizens to come forward heartily and unitedly, feeling certain that they will do this, it is rather to remind them that the time for taking preliminary action has arrived, and it would be as well, in our opinion to call a public meeting at once, with a view to appoint a committee to take charge of the necessary arrangements. If a committee, consisting of a moderate number of gentlemen, were at once elected the work of preparing for the coming celebration could be undertaken in a systematic and business-like manner. The experience of the Featherston celebration proved conclusively that to conduct a public celebration of such a character iiivolves a considerable amount af labor and forethought. We believe that a. committee cau be obtained ill Masterton quite equal to the requirements of such an undertaking, and that means will be forthcoming to defray all charges incidental to it, provided that the work be commenced in good time, and all arrangements are carried out carefully and deliberately. At the present moment Masterton is in an exceptionally depressed state, nor do we expect the financial difficulties which now surround so many of its settlers to be materially relieved even by the opening of the railway, Nevertheless, of no town in the Nor. h Island is there a greater certainty of eventual prosperity than there is of Masterton. Its position, its surroundings, its accumulated wealth—as indicated by buildings and other improve-ments-are all pledges of a bright future. We do not wish to discount our future expectations, but on the occasion of Masterton taking up its position as the terminus of a railway line sixty miles in length, which touches at itsotherextremity the capital of the Colony it is impossible, while admitting freely and fully our present; disabilities to ignore the blue sky in the distance. The railway must increase permanently the prosperity of the town, and vhen its traffic is opened to Masterton we may with every confidence regard it as the harbinger of better times.