February ideal for Carnival Week

The Belgian consul-general for Australasia pays a visit on February 8, 1921, to the Otago Harbour...
The Belgian consul-general for Australasia pays a visit on February 8, 1921, to the Otago Harbour Board’s graving docks and Stevenson and Cook’s engineering works at Port Chalmers. (From left) Dunedin Belgian consul G. L. Denniston, J. M Dickson MP, Otago Harbour Board chairman N. Galbraith, Belgian Consul-General for Australasia Henri Segaert, Mayor of Port Chalmers J. McD. Stevenson, Harbour Board deputy chairman T. Scollay and Harbour Board works committee chairman A. Cable. — Otago Witness
Such experience as we have had of it has all gone to show the wisdom of the decision by which it is in the month of February that a Carnival Week of show and races is held in Dunedin.

Those who are acquainted with the vagaries of our maligned climate have long realised that the weather, a factor which contributes immensely to the success or failure of out-of-doors festivities, is much more dependable after the summer solstice than before it.

Apparently, moreover, it is not less convenient for those to whom the events of a Carnival Week make a direct appeal to visit Dunedin in February than it is in November.

Indeed, it may be conjectured that the holiday spirit, which they may not have completely caught by the end of November, and by which they are gracelessly enslaved in January, still affects them powerfully in February and disposes them to a final spell of pleasure-seeking before they settle down to the hard and unromantic duties of the year.

At any rate it is obvious thatthe establishment of a Carnival Week in February attracts a great number of visitors to Dunedin. Carnival Week in February may now be regarded as a permanent institution.

It has its counterpart in the winter months in the week of which the most popular features are the Agricultural & Pastoral Society’s show of dairy produce, and the steeplechase race meeting.

There is no reason why both weeks should not become increasingly popular.

Each festival provides the country resident with an opportunity,which he is prepared to grasp, for refreshment and relaxation, nor is he ever likely to be able to make the complaint that the attractions offered for his benefit are not sufficiently numerous or sufficiently varied.

There is indeed crowded into each Carnival Week such a diversity of attractions as should cater for the taste of all sorts and conditions of visitors.

Japanese expansion unlikely

Sydney:  The current belief in Australia, that Australia must  expect and prepare for Japanese aggression, is scoffed at by Professor Murdoch of Sydney University.

Professor Murdoch is our greatest authority on Japanese affairs.

He speaks the language, knows the people, and has been seven times to Japan in the last four years.

The Japs, says the professor, do not want tropical Australia because they are a less tropical race than the Australians themselves.

The climate of Japan is almost exactly the climate of Britain.

Latitude, temperature and the amount and character of rainfall — all are comparable to English conditions.

In the second place Japan’s colonial empire to provide for the immigration of surplus population is already well provided in Formosa, Korea, and Manchuria, and these, along with her interest in China will keep her statesmen and capitalists busy for a long time to come.

The professor says the Japanese have neither the need nor the desire to interfere with Australia.

Belgian envoy visit

M. Henri Segaert, Belgian consul-general, was motored down to Portobello yesterday forenoon by Mr N. Galbraith, chairman of the Otago Harbour Board.

After partaking of morning tea at the residence of Mr. J. M. Dickson MP, the visitors crossed to Port Chalmers, where the docking and ship repair facilities were inspected.

Later M. Segaert was entertained at lunch by the Mayor of Port Chalmers (Mr J. M. Stevenson). He will leave this morning for Queenstown. 

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