The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1930. THE TURNING OF THE TIDE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 231, 30 September 1930, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1930. THE TURNING OF THE TIDE.

For the. cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Two noteworthy speeches have just been delivered, one in Ireland, one in England, predicting a recovery.in the -world's trade, and therefore the advent of "better times," within the near future. At Carlisle, Mr. Graham, President of the Board of Trade, while admitting that there would be no general improvement in economic conditions till prices rise, sees signs that "the bottom has now been touched," and expects a change for the better within the next few months. Almost at the same time General Dawes, the famous American financier, now United States Ambassador to Britain, speaking at Belfast, assured his audience confidently that "nothing is more certain than the coming business recovery." Testimony of this kind, coming from such authoritative sources, is well calculated to dispel the pessimism that is now far too widely prevalent, and to encourage high hopes for the coming year. It is to be observed that General Dawes and Mr. Graham do not look at the problem from quite the same point of view. To the American, familiar as he is with the details of the recent collapse in Wall Street, the present 'depression appears to be the natural consequence of a general failure of public confidence, due to the terrific fall in thc«value of standard securities. To Mr. Graham, who is concerned chiefly about the market for British commodities, the general "slump" is due principally to a widespread and continuous fall in prices. No doubt General Dawes is correct in his diagnosis of the situation in America. But Mr. Graham appears to have taken more correctly what the economists term the "long period view" of the situation, when he insists that, because the collapse of world-trade is largely due to the fall in prices, it will take some considerable time for complete recovery. But even admitting this, as we have already pointed out, it is at least conceivable that international action between the world's greatest financial institutions may succeed in rectifying speedily the defect in, the ■mechanism of the world's currency system. The views expressed by Mr. Graham and General Dawes should produce a favourable impression everywhere, and especially* on a eountry*like our own, possessing great potentialities for wealth production and of good standing in the world of commerce and finance. In this connection it is interesting to note the remarks made by Sir 0. Niemeyer on his return to Sydney about the state of New Zealand. The Doininion, says Sir O. Kiemeyer, is in a better position than Australia in regard to climate, natural resources and the variety of its products, and he is careful to draw a clear distinction between the financial circumstances of the two countries. It is quite certain that New Zealanders have allowed themselves to be unduly (influenced by the depressing conditions prevailing in less favoured countries, notably in Australia; and General Dawes is no doubt right in his conviction that what is chiefly needed to ensure the recovery of the world in general, and every individual country in particular, is the revival of confidence in ourselves and the cultivation of a more optimistic outlook for the future.