THRESHOLD OF NEW ERA

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 10, 22 December 1933, Page 8

THRESHOLD OF NEW ERA

Confident Hope in the Future LORD BLEDISLOE’S MESSAGE By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, Dee. 21. The Governor-General, in his Christmas message to the people of New Zealand and Dependencies, says: “I desire to express to the whole of the population of this Dominion and of the Pacific islands within its administration the most hearty good wishes of Lady Biedisloe and myself that happiness may bo their lot this Christmastide and that a definite revival of economic prosperity may during the New Year brighten their lives and sus tain their confidence in their country and themselves. ‘‘For the last two years at least in dustrial depression has fining heavy over this land of promise, which is so richly endowed by nature. Unemploy meat has been rife and the outlook overcast with uncertainty and anxiety Now that the clouds are lifting let us all take heart and develop that confl dent hope in the future which is so prolific in promoting enterprise and accelerating the advent of prosperity. “We have with the deepest sympathy shared your sorrows and anxieties. Wo shall in a spirit of genuine comradeship share the happiness of your revived material good fortune.

“One of your chief primary products, which has yielded little or no profit to its producers for the last three years, lias recovered its true value in -the world’s markets, and there is good reason for believing that with the improved purchasing power of other nations, and notably of the Old Country, other New Zealand products will follow suit, “with resulting advantage alike to our rural and urban communities.

“On the threshold of this new era let those who have means remember this Christmastide with generous solicitude the many whom undeserved economic adversity has brought to the brink of utter destitution, and thus stengthen their sense of mutual comradeship and brighten tiieir outlook for the happier days which appear to bo coming. Christmas is essentially a period of abounding and generous goodwill, when nationally, Imperially, racially and domestically we should bind ourselves closer to one another with

a consciousness of community of io terest and mutual regard. “Let us not forget our invaluable partnership with Britain, the kindly old mother who is ever mindful of her children’s needs, and with other countries of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

“Let us especially, too, remember in friendly sympathy our Maori people, whose privations have been great and their patient courage outstanding during the recent period of economic misfortune, and whom we are proud to recognise as equal partners with ourselves in the heritage which we share as fellow subjects of the King in this highly-favoured section of the great British Empire. Let both races with mutual helpfulness and mutual confidence and respect advance with even step to the achievement of high destiny which, with the blessing of God, awaits them as one happy and united nation in the days that are to come.

“To each and all, pakeha and Maori, wo confidently and cordially wish a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year,”