AUSTRALIA'S CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 220, 17 September 1930, Page 9

AUSTRALIA'S CRISIS.

WILL SHE RECOVER? PERILS THAT WERE PASSED. WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF? : (From Our Special Correspondent.) , : - SYDNEY, September 10. "Triumphing Over Gloomy Moods" is the,title of an article in the "Sydney Mail," the author of which bewails the; fact that the pessimist is abroad in the, land. "Pessimism," he says,, "is passive; it is a gospel of the damned. ... It is by action that we build up a store of power to combat life's difficulties. It is by action that we discover that' things are rarely so bad &s they seem; that the worst often turns best for the brave." Yes;; things might be worse. The same journal publishes the story of several, financial crashes in Australian history.: The greatest was that* of 1893, when a great' land boom burst, and "the crash of falling banks shattered the heavens. The notices appeared oil the doors. The crowds gathered and ? stood about .as though expecting the walls to fall; the clerks inside-Avroto, on/ the backs"of the cheques 'payment suspended pending reconstruction,,' and the bottom seemed to have fallen^Out of the world." ... Not a Disaster. , ."Tit ,, l):>ii'-s ;\vp"o nof ol''«"(l' for '<■'•■• j After some days or weeks they reopened schemes of- reconstruction Laving . ivn begun as speedily as possible. "Sir Timothy C'oghlan, New South Wales Statistician, writing about the crisis afterwards, said: 'In the light of subsequent events it must be confessed that the crisis was by no means the disaster which has been pictured.' "•'"Whcn : there was no speculation," adds the writer of the article- (Sparta cus Smith), "no money to be borrowed because people had .none to lend, nothing] to be done but work, the Australian people, to use their own expression, soon 'bucked up.' New means of production were sought. It had to be done. The times of living on lucky throws were past. Work was the spirit pf the new era, and once more Australia went ahead."

Atmosphere of Pessimism. Will history repeat itself? Can rcstoration be achieved to-day as it was 47 years ago? As an Aucklander, having passed through Sydney and having spent over three months in Brisbane, I came back to "the big city" four weeks ago, and I must confess .that amidst a deep-set atmosphere of pessimism it is difficult tb feel -optimistic. One must realise that before there is any real turn of the tide very troublous waters have to be navigated. The wefrst feature of the present economy campaign is an alarming increase in unemployment. The- States are retrenching; ' employers of labour: are retrenching; the ranks of the unemployed,.both men and women, have been, increased, and are still being increased 'at a rate that. threatens to become the outstanding problem that has to be faced. In State Departments employing labour not only have many men been discharged, but those remaining have had their rates, of pay reduced, or have been put on "part-time," and the same course/has been taken by private employers, while ajl. employed antl unemployed arc.,/bearing a heavy increase in. taxation. . ;;; Some., Rents Down 25 Per Cent. There are evidences of a reduced cost of living,'according to the Statistician's Department, and a reduction of the basic wage may be anticipated—less cbst toi live; less ability* to meet the weekly bills. The main .item in the decreased cost of living is lower rents. In , some parts of Sydney house rent has fallen 25 per cent—and no wonder! In one of the most popular, and populous suburbs,.' with whole streets of palatial flats, one sees, :pght and left, windows plastered with ."to let" tickets, where a few years ago charges were so, high. as to be almost exhorbitant. There., must be a thousand vacant flats-in this!' one suburb alone. Where have the former tenants gone? ' Nobody knows. And the same cdnditions exist in other residential suburbs'. A former resident of Auckland informed me that he last week tried to book passages to England for two Scotr tish p'eorfle who wished to get back to- the Old Country. Two big vessels were leaving and both: were fully booked. Does this mean anything more,' or is there a "drift" of population ? Australian politicians are doing their utmost to balance their .Budgets, • but perhaps they have a still bigger taskahead. '-. '. ''v;