HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 142, 12 December 1935, Page 4

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

BUSY DAYS IN SYDNEY

RETURNING PROSPERITY

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, November 29. Sydney is loosening its purse-strings in preparation for the busiest .and happiest Christmas for years. Already crowded lifts in city stores testify that the spirit of Christmas is in the' air, and most of the retail houses report that the purchase of presents has begun. Hustling throngs of eager shoppers, stores crammed with gorgeous wares, a hurly-burly of rush orders, an increased seasonable awareness of the need to buy presents for old friends—by these signs is Sydney, I in the Christmas season, manifesting its faith in the prosperity that has come to it.

It has good cause for that faith. Trade increases in the first ten months of this year compared with the ten months of 1934 tell a heartening story of the State's advance: £4,200,000 in exports, £4,000,000 in imports, £3,493,000 in building activity, £2,367,000 in real estate sales, and £2,400,000 in savings bank deposits More than that, all Australia this Christmas will share in an increase of nearly £5,000,000 in the national wool cheque this season—and wool is a good barometer of business. Money and work are more plentiful, postal turnover is speeding to record levels and the yuletide exodus to holiday resorts has already started.

The view held almost generally by leaders of commerce is that Sydney is in for a happy Christmas. Mr. R. M. Clark (president of the Chamber of Commerce), who is a leading retail merchant, believes that this Christmas may prove to be not only the best for the last six years, but the best ever. There has been a definite upward movement in trade all round, he says.

Better Christmases and more employment go hand in hand. Just what this means is illustrated by the fact that in one city store alone 300 additional girls and 50 more men will be needed to cope with the busy shoppers. This indicates that the number of additional employees generally will amount to thousands. Christmas orders for ham and poultry are already being booked, and retailers are anticipating big sales. "Poultry and hams are luxury lines, and are therefore a good barometer of the public spending power," said one retailer. "Business improved tremendously last Christmas, and by the look of things it is going to be better this time."

Reports from the capitals of other States and from country towns indicate that a similarly busy Christmas will be experienced there. The evidence is that it is going to be a happy Christmas throughout Australia.