"LACK APPEAL."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 275, 20 November 1935, Page 9

"LACK APPEAL."

QUEEN STREET SHOPS.

BUILDING PLAN URGED.

BUSINESS VISITOR'S VIEW.

"Queen Street, Auckland, is an impressive disappointment in the eyes of visitors from Australia and abroad," declares Mr. Thomas J. Clarke, an adviser in sales efficiency and store-planning director, who is at present in New Zealand under engagement to several lead- | Jog firms. "As a city shopping street it must inevitably surrender its antiquity -and clothe itself with things': from a modern wardrobe of ideas. [ Auckland. expects the patronage of overseas tourists, but it does not get it, because the shops, generally speaking, feck appeal." Outside a few outstanding examples, said Mr. Clarke, the business services to *•» people of New Zealand were so lamentably obsolete" that it was apparel to the observer that the country's Modernisation programme lay along the me of rebuilding and otherwise reconstructing the business portions of thej cities. Bold Move Necessary. "The Prime Minister is right in persistently. emphasising the vital importance of that major industry—building," 6 said. "But a very bold move is j " eces sary. The Government must remove the shackles crippling investment. The frozen capital held by the Banks of New Zealand is "PProximately £40,000,000; a large proPortion of which should normally be in "filiation in general building investment.. There is no incentive to enterT ? lder hara -ssing taxation. 'The thing is to get the building programme started—heralding an era of renewed building activity that

will release much of this frozen capital into circulation,, provide abundant employment and solve and eliminate to a major degree the problem which is I undermining the young manhood of the country, to thousands of whom honest employment seems hopeless." Wages Cuts Restoration. Mr. Clarke urged that in lieu of the collection of sales tax, its equivalent should be provided for by every individual business under legislative enactment, and compulsorily applied to the restoration of wages cuts, tne increase of staffing to normal strength,_ building improvement and the provision of modern equipment. In addition to the present scheme for advances for home building and the dairying industry New Zealand should follow the lead of the Kural Bank of New South Wales, making available loans at 3 per cent to property owners for extensions and repairs to homes and buildings up to, say, £300, with repayments from five to ten years by monthly instalments, to business and factory premises, up to £500, to public bodies up to £1500, anrl to other organisations to approved limits on similar basis of repayment to that provided for property owners. "A Timely Warning." He suggested further that legislation ihould be framed in the interests of andlord and tenant, having as its object ;he encouragement of enterprise on jither side, with equitable adjustment of tenure conditions incidental to the axpenditure of either on property improvement during the currency of tenure. "Frame legislation to .deal effectively with agitators attempting to disturb peace in industry, and make all strikes illegal, but with adequate provision for adjustment of disputes by arbitration," continued Mr. Clarke. "This is a timely warning in the interests of the building community of this country, and is based on the writer's knowledge of local conditions and his expectations." In the pursuit of these suggestions Mr. Clarke urged that the mayors of towns and cities throughout the Dominion should call public meetings and form advancement councils with the object of formulating itineraries, which would inspire participation by the whole of the I community.

I "Eeplace the present apathy with a " wholesome interest in the things that ' matter affecting the welfare of every , man, woman and child in this country," ; he said- "If the lead is given with the right spirit behind it they will fall in line individually to do that little bit , which, collectively, will stir the people ; to a sense of citizenship that will lift • New Zealand out of the doldrums."