Work—Just Work.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XI, Issue 200, 17 August 1921, Page 2

Work—Just Work.

INDIVIDUAL AND NATIONAL. MR. JAMES KELL’S GOSPEL. ROYAL ROAD TO PROSPERITY. Sydney, August 9. The high complexities of world finance, the causes of and the remedies for the present financial depression, the big and perplexing ques--1 tions of administration and economy —all these were reduced to the simplest of words, “Work,” by the De-puty-Governor of the CommonI wealth Bank (Mr. James Kell) in f ■ brief and brilliant Speech at the ' Sydney Millions Club. ’ “Tlie causes of the present financia . depression,” he said, “are the devasta tion of capital and the limitations o L production during the war. As for th< 1 remedy, the only royal road to pros ’ perity is work and economy. • “The individual who is prosperous i; 5 the individual who works. The natioi 3 which is prosperous is the nation w.hos< - individuals work. But we must worl s in the right direction. The great fea f ture retarding all British communitiei } is that we are not at work either effi 3 ciently or enthusiastically. German; j is working harder than we. The natioi that can place its manufactured good: on the world market at the lowest cosi will be tho nation to win out. And w< can’t do that by reducing the hours o ’ labour or by laying 300 bricks a daj “To do an honest day’s work for an ' honest day’s pay will do a lot io put ■ us on the road to prosperity. Economy is one of the things yet to be taken in ! hand by most governments—not only ' that of Australia. “It is no use blaming governments; ’ but we must create a wholesome pub--1 lie opinion, which would compel our ' Government to adopt an economical 1 administration. t “We know how hard it is to intro- , duce economy even into our own i homes. Try to pull down vour wife’s » dressmaking bill and you’ll see! Un- ■ til the Government dismisses every un» . necessary man and every person in its . employ has his adequate work, there is a very grave danger that the ro- , ceipts and expenditure will not balance.” Mr. Kell prefaced his speech hy the remark that ho talked about finance with diffidence, as that was the province of Sir Denison Miller. He had just returned from a visit to Europe and America, and he assured the Millions Club that tho rumour that America was dry was quite unfounded. He had never had any difficulty in getting a drink on the isolated occasions when he needed one. He strongly advocated the claims that the Diggers’ Loan had on every citizen. When an interjecter questioned whether £10.00C.090 would he sufficient to complete repatriation, war service homes, land settlement, and vocational training pledges, Mr. Kell smiled and added : “We hope to get a little more,” Though he was not officially entitled to make the statement, ho said that it was understood that the German war indemnitv would he applied to tho rennyment of these War Loans. Tiro president (Sir Arthur Rickard) proclaimed himself aq optimist, as tho pessimist was no use to this nr anv other country. Among his ontimistin aspirations was tho hope that Mr. Kell would toll them tnat tho rates of interest, would soon he lower. A chorus of “Hear, hears!” showed that the sneaker had struck a sympathetic note. Mr. Kf.ll merelv smiled