DOMINION’S REPUTATION

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 3 May 1934, Page 4

DOMINION’S REPUTATION

HIGH AS EVER AT LONDON IMPRESSIONS OiF BANKER (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, May 2, Mr T. H. Easdown, manager of the Auckland branch of the National Bank of New Zealand, has returned, from a to the head office in London and is staying a.t Wellington a day or two before resuming his duties at Auckland. He also visited the United States, Canada, France and Australia. In an interview, he said New Zealand’s reputation in London was as high as ever. It was fully and sympathetically recognised that the Dominion had its own domestic problems to solve and was honestly trying to do so. The people He met were not disposed to adversely criticise the means adopted. Australia’s efforts were warmly commended and the city seemed very pleased with what had been done by the Commonwealth to put its house in order.

There was certainly a trade revival in Britain, but whether the improvement had staying power Mr Eaisdown was not prepared to «ay._ Britain had to' look to her export trade for permanency. It was not only the markets that had to be discovered and developed but the purchasing power of the people in those markets also had to he taken into account. Mr Eaisdown spoke' of Australia, saying that business was in much better heart than when he was there in 1932.

With regard to Mr Roosevelt’s work in America, Mr Easdown agreed that his method was costly. The financing, however, was done by raising loans taken: up by the banks and similar institutions. By 1935, he said, the United States public debt would not amount to the sum of the British public debt-, and it was all internal and earned by 130,000,000 people e-ompared with ‘ 40,000,000 in Britain. Mr Roosevelt was satisfying those clamouring that something should he done, and time would show if his actions were effective.

Mr Easdown’s visit to Paris synchronised with the riots, which lie said wore much more serious, than the French Press, allowed because of the tourist traffic. He went to the Riviera, whose deserted resorts showed how the rich were rich no longer.