The Feilding Star Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1931. LET US BE CHEERFUL!

Feilding Star, Volume 8, Issue 2399, 8 April 1931, Page 4

The Feilding Star Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1931. LET US BE CHEERFUL!

“ Yet I think the slump or depres-s-on.—call it- what- you will ! has done us good.” One of London’s hading daily papers at the opening of tlii s year invited a group of the most prominent practical people m Britain to tell its reader* in a special article what lie or she thought on the subject of ‘‘.My Belief in 1031.” One of the most cheering and helpful oi the contriliuti'.'ns cdme from Sir William Morris of Cowley, whoso manufactures are as well known, and popular iu Feikkng a* they are in Coventry Hsolf. One of the phrases used hv Sir William is quoted above, and ho carries that note of the much needed Cheerio right- through raft very practical article. He says: ‘ Wo English as a race are singularly unimaginative and u ni m press ion n hie. It takes us a. long tone to react to any indicative set of conditions. But when we do get a< thought into our head* our action* are dogged, virile, and tenacious. That is why l have great f :l ‘th !u 1031.” It took the Britons in the Homeland two years from August, 1014, to realise that they had a great on their hands. But, realising it, they won! Sir William sees the swinging of the pendulum ■ from adversity Dicik Howards prosper 't v on;a n hee.ause there >s now displayed in Groat Britain the will to work. And to develop that work the noted manufacturer joins the Imperialists in voicing the need iOr an adequate protection against foreign trade rivals and competitors. But first- of all tliq. parrot eric* of Hard T-mo* and Slump and Depression must cea.sc. ‘‘.Look frankly at tin* state of the country to-day. Are we really so depressed n» some would have us believe? I* there another nation in the world that could weather the stormy times of the last few years a* we have done? In spite of the terrible increase in unemployment, i* the spirit oi the country broken? We have no sudden increase in crime, there have been no r-’ots, no violent upheavals in our social structure. Things arc by no means as had as they might have been. I u point of real truth, other countries are i>r more seriously affected by Ill's “world depression” than we are. The difference is that they do not seem to possess the latent love °f a good hearty grouse as we do.” There is no doubt of that. The grousing or growling disposition of the Briton, whether ho lets himself go i n England or iln New Zealand, i s neither cheering nor helpful. Morris of Cowley does not classify himself a* an optimist, just a practical man of business. Yet lie give* an optimistic load. “For myself, T am content to take my courage- in both hands and, by strict application to business and the adoption of modern devices for the improvcmnfc of the products that I make, to pas* on to the public and mv employees the benefits that can and do accrue. . Is there a better principle for the head of a manufacturing concern to adopt ? To-day we

have to .-realise - that wf- must think harder than did our forebears. We hvi» life more intensively. J would like to impress that fact particularly on the youth of both sexes. Money only conics to those who earn it by doing something useful. Th-:s 1031 win he a year of benefiting from the lessons of the past. It must he » year of hard work, and serious endcavorij-. Let me conclude by wishing everybody the. best of all good fortune and by saying this: Work hard, •play hard, and, above all, Vm.v hard! Buy goods that will make your life more enjoyable and improve your status, litiv carefully and shrewdly. Above all buy British and keep down unemployment. Do these things,, re-

solve never to talk loosely of depression and 1931 w ; ll he a happy year for all of us.” Now that we are well into- 1931 and have come through Eastertide-, the. Morris urge broughtup to dale is: Carry on hopefully !