IMPRESSIONS OF SYDNEY

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22251, 16 November 1937, Page 14

IMPRESSIONS OF SYDNEY

EVERYTHING ON A LARGE

SCALE

MR J. L. HAY'S ADDRESS

A pipe band composed entirely of women —a trades union march three miles long' clamouring for an. eighthour day—air-conditioning in trains, and a business house with a staff of nearly 6500—these were some of the impressions left most vividly in the mind of Mr J..L. Hay as a result of his recent visit to Australia, of which he 'gave a description to members of the Businessmen's Club at a luncheon yesterday. Mr Hay explained that it was impossible not to have a feeling of awe at the immensity of things in Australia, .'and that to return to Christchurch after 'spending some time in Sydney was 'rather too much like returning to a 'country town. In Sydney a limit had I been set to the height to which build[ings could be constructed, and one .well-known house with a 12-storey '[building already had to look round for 'more premises. They were building ! on *he opposite corner of the intersection, and were making two floors bellow ground level with a subway connecting this branch with the main house on the opposite corner. One thing which had struck him very forcibly was that the high-grade stores had dropped expensive and picturesque displays, and had gone back more to the style adopted by the chain stores in putting all the goods Qn tables with, the prices marked plainly on them. Mr Hay explained that these stores ' had their boards of directors, under which worked an associate board of directors composed of the heads of the various departments.

■ Commercial wireless stations in Australia were run by private companies, and they seemed to be handling a lot of business, Mr Hay said. However, the big firms frequently would take two or three pages in the newspapers for their advertisements some days every week, and this when the rates of newspaper advertising were more than six times as much as in the Dominion. Mr Hay was disappointed with the Sydney newspapers, and said that they could not hold a candle to the New Zealand dailies. In one week he had been able to find only two articles of news from New .Zealand, and both of these were progress reports of the Arundel murder!