HAPPIER DAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 91, 17 April 1936, Page 5

HAPPIER DAYS.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE. PROSPERITY COMES BACK. A VISITOR'S COMPARISON. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) DUNEDIN, this day. Returning prosperity throughout the British Empire and a radical change in industrial conditions are interestingly revealed in the studies of Mr. W. J. Grant, editor of the "Rangoon Times," made on his Empire tour, in comparison with a similar one four years ago.

Interviewed by a reporter he said the change referred to was particularly noticeable in South Africa, where the high price of gold had had very pronounced effects on the prosperity of the country. Johannesburg he discovered to be a hive of industry, with new buildings being erected everywhere with amazing rapidity. Everybody there was full of confidence and money was being spent with a freeness that almost approached recklessness. Not a single unemployment problem did he observe while visiting Johannesburg. Within many miles of that city there was no man looking for work. There were, however, the inevitable unemployables, but their numbers were few.

A lesser but equally encouraging improvement was found in Australia, particularly in Perth where demand for gold was also evident in much building activity and other signs of prosperity. He was happy to see that New Zealand also was slowly advancing out of her stringent difficulties of four years ago and with very welcome results. After his last visit here Mr. Grant left with an excellent opinion of New Zealanders' hospitality, but he was rather depressed at the burden of unemployment the was then carrying. An atmosphere of confidence, however, now pervaded the land, he declared,,