PAINFUL YEARS AHEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 195, 19 August 1930, Page 9

PAINFUL YEARS AHEAD.

STATE OF AUSTRALIA.

ENGLISHMAN'S OPINION.

" BUSINESS MUST COME FIRST."

"Australia will not emerge from her present self-made troubles until her people yield to the discipline of the circumstances they have themselves created," said Mr. Guyton Butler, of England, who arrived in Auckland to-day by the Uliniaroa. "They must come into line with the rest of the world," he added. "Australian industry needs perspective and a proper sense of proportion. The factors of distance, lack of close and constant contact with real competition, lack of real unity in purpose or achievement, have contributed greatly to Australia's present weakness.

"No country on earth need fear Australian competition in the purely industrial sphere, but she will always find buyers for her primary products -so long as she likes to continue penalising her own people in order that her industrial competitors may buy her goods cheaply.

"At present the Government is the greatest industry in Australia, and until, and unless the people realise that business must come first, they will remain out-of-joint with modern commercial condition's. The capacity of the Australian people to put their house in order is undoubted, but the incentive is still lacking. A long and paiiiful, yet salutary experience lies ahead of Australia. When she realises that she has to go through, with it she will not flinch, but, when she is through, the other nations of the world will have to take her very seriously indeed."