IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26514, 31 August 1951, Page 10

IMPRESSIONS OF AUSTRALIA

“INFLATION GONE MAD ” SIR JOHN MCKENZIE RETURNS Inflation had gone mad, said Sir John McKenzie, commenting on conditions in Australia yesterday, after returning to Christchurch from a three months’ visit to New South Wales and Queensland.

Sir John McKenzie said that, on a visit to Queensland 10 years ago, he had been able to buy oranges at 16 for Is. To-day they were selling at 5d each. Pears and pineapples were similarly priced. “Considering that they are grown there, I have never been more astounded in my life,” he said. Although there was definitely an air of prosperity in Australia, businessmen feared that present conditions would not continue, he said. Sir John McKenzie has returned with a very high opinion of the signposting work of the Automobile Associations in New Zealand. In Australia, he said, he had found that if there was a sign-post at all at a turn-off it seemed to have been there for years was difficult to read, and was quite often pointing the wrong way New Zealand roads .were aiso verv much better than those in New South Wales, said Sir John McKenzie The New South Wales roads had not been made to take the heavy eight-ton and 10-ton vehicles now using them and were, as a result, in a very bad state. Ine Pacific highway was so bad that at times it was not possible to travel faster than 15 miles an hour.