SINGULARLY BLESSED.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 2 May 1922, Page 5

SINGULARLY BLESSED.

A TRIBUTE TO NEW ZEALAND

"You have a country that is singularly blessed," said Mr . James A. Boss, of the Weston Company, / Ltd., i to a Dominion reporter recently. Mr Boss has just completed an extensive tour of 'New Zealand, and he is returning to Sydney very greatly impressed with < the, scenic beauties and the productive capacity of the Dominion. His interest in New Zealand dates from ; the early 'nineties, when he was an active figure in the political Labour movement in Australia, and was watching sympathetically the legislative efA forts of the sister colony; but until ; recent months he had not had an op- * portunity to become acquainted with many parts of the Dominion. "I have been delighted with what I have seen of New Zealand from end to end," .added Mr Ross. "I feel qualified now to correct some of the wrong impressions that exist elsewhere regarding the Dominion. I had been told, for example, ,that Wellington was wrongly placed as the capital city, and had heard your city compared to Washington, as a city that was a white elephant. That impression is entirely -wrong. Wellington undoubtedly is the centre of New Zealand, commercially as well as geographically and politically. The wonderful extent of fertile land in the South Island was a revelation to me. I was better prepared for the great productive capacity of the North Island. "New Zealand has nothing to fear. A country so richly endowed by Nature cannot fail to be prosperous. The depression of the present moment is due in part to the low prices of meat and wool, but my observations have led me to believe that a great contributing factor has been land speculation during the period of high prices. We have been made familiar with that sort of thing in Australia. A very severe depression in Victoria in the early 'nineties was due to land speculuation which nearly ruined the country. Inflated value's had to come down to normal levels, as they are doing in New Zealand, and the process is a rather pain- • ful one. But New.Zealand is such a richly productive country that it can overcome the trouble. It has advantages that I do not think are possessed by any other land of similar size in the world." Mr Ross is an advertising man, and ■ he said that he was going - h away prepared to do his share in advertising. New Zealand. The more people heard about the I Dominion the better for the country itself.