DEPRESSION IN ENGLAND.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 334, 22 October 1908, Page 9

DEPRESSION IN ENGLAND.

AS SEEN BY MR. T. PRINGLE. THE HIGH COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE: Tho observations of 'Mr. Thomas Pringlc, of Wellington, who returned yesterday from a business trip to the Old World, were by no means altogether cheerful. Depressed trade and unemployment were the principal things that struck him in Great Britain. "It was simply awful," he told a Dominion reporter. "Going down tho'Clyde, whero ono used to be deafened by tho continual noise of the hammers ill tho shipbuilding works, I did not hear a singlo ono. I found that at Port Glasgow, even in July, soup kitchens were open'for the relief of the destitute, and what it will bo like when winter comes ono docs not care to think." A Gloomy Outlook. In all parts of England Mr. Pringle found tho conditions were similarly bad, and ho did not seo any signs of a change for tlio better. Beggars and neonlo trvinp to live by selling small articles in the streets seemed' to be much more numerous in London than thoy woro when Mr. Pringle was -there two years ago. All the merchants and manufacturers to whom he spoke were looking forward to worse times ahead, and the country seemod to bo passing through a period of great social stress and political unrost. Ho found there was a growing tendency to consider seriously the question of "fiscal reform," one stimulating cause being the great amount of cheap foreign' labour, chiefly from Russian Poland, that had come into many different parts of England; and seemed to bo ousting Britishers altogether from some branches of employment. Advertising New Zealand. The metropolis was overrun by French people and other foreigners who had been attracted thither by the Franco-British Exhibition, ' but the shopkeepers complained that tho influx brought them no perceptible increase of trade. Like other visitors from New Zealand, Mr. Pringle was much disappointed in this country's display at the Franco-British Exhibition. It was distressingly commonplace, and was quito overshadowed by the Canadian and Australian courts. Nobody seemed to tako any interost in it—"a magnificent opportunity thrown away." This was, in Mr. Pringle's opinion, only one instance of a general lack of activity in the advertising of Now Zealand and its resources. He hoped the now High Commissioner would speedily remove his office from Westminster to some much more central position. Queensland had given a lead by opening recently a fine new office in the Strand. Tlio example of Canada and other parts of. tho Empire in running attractive permanent exhibitions of their produce and manufactures in well-situated shops might also, Mr. Pringle thought, bo followed with advantage by New Zealand. Again, on the way back, New Zealand's modesty in making its attractions known struck Mr. Pringle unfavourably. The ship at Fremantle was deluged with bright, attractive immigration and tourist literature from all the Australian States, but thero were only half-a-dozen pamplilets about Now Zealand.

Mr. Pringle was away nearly six months, and ho visited Italy, Franco, a,nd Switzerland as well as Great Britain.