The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1930. 1930.

Evening Star, Issue 20374, 4 January 1930, Page 10

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1930. 1930.

To-dat is the end of perhaps an all-too-brief period of respite from the accustomed round of pursuing a livelihood for the .bulk of our population. On Monday some of the long-sighted business heads .will begin to test their plans for the 1930 trading year, while others will begin to formulate programmes in order that it may prove to them a better year than 1929. For on the whole last year was a dull one, and its dullness became more noticeable towards its close. Doubtless this was principally because a fall in the price of wool, so momentous a matter to both New Zealand and Australia, had been foreseen from relatively early in the year, and it duly materialised in the closing weeks when the wool season opened, the. decline in values being not less pronounced than had been feared. That is a factor beyond our control in these parts of the world. No one in New Zealand or Australia has a say as to what length women’s skirts shall be, or of what material they shall consist, or as to the credit facilities of the firms for whom wool is the raw material. It seems to be more than a passing trait that civilised womankind goes more lightly clad, both as to garments visible and invisible, than was the case a decade or two ago. (It may be noted that the dictators of fashion are at the moment seeking, against considerable opposition, to lengthen the skirt fay no inconsiderable amount.) It is also accepted as in the main true that the average man gets along with fewer new clothes than he once did. The Sunday suit for churchgoing is not the indispensable item in the wardrobe which it once was. Some of the expenditure formerly laid out on raiment has been permanently diverted —probably much of it. to locomotion and amusement, or a blend of both.

The devotion to amusement is in a sense corroborated by a study of the totalisator returns during .the spring and holiday racing in New Zealand. The- money passing through the totalisator, taken over a period covering the last two or three months, constitutes a very appreciably larger total than that for the corresponding period of last year. It has been the custom, by no means confined to racing circles, to treat such figures as an index to the purchasing power of the community and also to its disposition to exercise that spending power in more prosaic hazards than trying to pick a winner. But such a guide, it seems, is not invariably accurate,. Business does not come as easily or. as: freely to sales departments as to the totalisator window. It has to be gone after, assiduously, and, even after great effort, possibly under keen competition, its volume may bo disappointing. Standards of living appear to be changing. In the words of some business men handling what ono usually regards as necessaries of life, the people are “ amusement mad.” To satisfy their desires they are prepared to do without something else. Naturally, the question arises whether falling prices should not accompany an easier demand for commodities. In some instances there is evidence of this, though it can hardly be called a general movement. Now , and again one hoars of cut prices under rather intense selling competition. But, as for any general and perceptible rise in the purchasing power of the pound, it seems as far off as ever. On retailers’ behalf high rents, high rates, and heavy. taxation generally can be justifiably enough urged.' Nevertheless, a passage in the latest current issue of the ‘New Statesman,’ dealing with conditions in Britain, caught the eye and held attention to such a degree, that it may be worth reproduction: “Long, association with the ‘brass tacks’ of trading has made one the reverse of patient „ with the farce of ,the Food Council. , The public hasn’t the ghost ■ of an adequate perception of the extent to which it has been bled, especially during and since the war. Twenty-five per cents, became fifties, and fifties became hundreds, and the profiteers are loth to let • go—of course they are! Over thirty years ago Mr Illingworth, in his book ‘ Distribution Reform,’ showed that it was costing an added twenty shillings to place with the user goods bringing twenty shillings,to tho maker —cent, per cent, for the handling J A Lancashire manufacturer was a while ago charged six shillings for a yard ol stuff for which the maker received only one and sixpence.” Sir Joseph Ward has issued a New Year message in which he expresses his confidence that 1930 will bo a much better year than 1929. Tho most practical advice he has to offer to tho people is to exercise their capacity for selfhelp. “Buy New Zealand-made goods” is recommended by him-as a motto for the year. Meantime his Minister of Lands has his plans drawn up for land settlement, and it is promised that this year will see tljo scheme in practical operation. By the stimulation of local manufacturing (if this can bo really brought about except by tho very debatable tariff measures to the same end taken by the Australian Government) and by the opening up of land in areas that can be worked without big capital requirements, it is hoped to lessen unemployment. These processes are not rapid. ■ There is bound to be some creaking in the bearings as inertia gives place to movement, and lubrication will be needed, which the people as a whole can,supply in the form of genuine goodwill and co-operation rather than by aloof criticism. In other minor ways the Government is striving to disperse dullness—by advertising jioth the dominion’s wares and its natural, even novel, beauties. A desire to get increasing numbers of wealthy visitors to leave their sqrplus money in this country is laudable, for every patriotic New Zealander knows that, good value can be given them- Further it is only sound-business to seek full recompense for the amount of money, made in New Zealand, which wealthy New Zealanders take away and spend abroad on extended world tours. These fortunate fellow-citizens may be. fewer in num-

hers, year in and year out, than those who at about this season come seeking a healthy holiday in New Zealand, but their absences may be reckoned by months as against the weeks which tourists average hero. Incidentally it would be interesting to know, if only it could bo roughly ascertained, whether in this side issue of economics our “trade balance” is adverse or favourable. However, undue reliance on the tourist traffic as an item in our national income would be in a way derogatory to the dominion’s self-respect, for our main business is production; and the sturdy independence of the primary producer is a more admirable trait than the sycophancy and purse-lightening tactics observable in some of those countries world-famous as resorts for the globetrotter. What the dominion has chiefly to realise is that it is an integral part of a big economic system, and cannot escape its share of dullness when depression broods abroad over the major part of that system. But, if there are also internal sources of dullness as well, whose removal would alleviate conditions, attack should be concentrated on these, while awaiting a dispersal of the clouds that brood abroad over countries between whose wellbeing and ours there is an intimate relation.