AUSTRALIA IMPROVES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 287, 30 August 1933, Page 8

AUSTRALIA IMPROVES

Definite Swing Toward Better Trade < < ;i , - < OPTIMISM IN CITIES With each boat from Australia comes news of the slow but steady recovery of that country from the financial depression. Passengers who arrived by the Wanganella yesterday related similar stories to those of recent visitors, that there was a .definite tendency toward normal trading conditions. Mr. J. H. Miles, a well-known barrister and solicitor, of Wellington, who returned after a two months’ business visit to Australia, said he was very much struck with the optimism of the younger business men. particularly in Melbourne! He was also interested to find that there was a considerable body of people in Melbourne investing or speculating oh the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Miles said he thought that the Australian people were now. spending more readily. The shops had a much greater variety of goods for sale than was available in New Zealand, but in the clothing shops especially most of the goods were made in Australia, and they appeared to be cheaper than the corresponding articles in New Zealand. Imported clothes, he said, were very dear indeed, much more so than in the Dominion. The picture theatres appeared to be extraordinarily well patronised. On Saturday nights it was almost impossible to get a seat unless a booking had been made, and during the week the city theatres in Melbourne and Sydney attracted much larger crowds than was the case in New Zealand. So far as the building trade was concerned, there did not seem to be a very large amount of work going on in Sydney, said Mr. Miles, but In Melbourne he was told , that building was very brisk, particularly in the suburbs. “The people over there do not talk slump,” he said. He believed that a big factor in their outlook was the amount of sunshine they enjoyed and the outdoor life they led. Mr. Philip Myers, a prominent business man in Wellington, who also returned by the Wanganella after a brief visit to., Australia, said it appeared .to him that conditions generally in Australia were improving. Business seemed to be brighter, and the people were more optimistic in their outlook for the future. It was significant, he said, that landlords were now able to let premises which had been vacant for a long time. The’ collections of rent were also improving, and the number of mortgagors unable to fulfil their obligations was decreasing rapidly. Taxation burdens were very heavy, but the people were hoping that relief would be granted soon.