CONFIDENCE NEEDED

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 4459, 19 October 1933, Page 7

CONFIDENCE NEEDED

OPTIMISM NOW JUSTIFIED VIEWS OF VISITOR New Zealanders should have more confidence, more considered confidence, in themselves and their country. That is the opinion of Mr G. G. Virtue, a world-wide traveller who hails from Sydney. He also expressed himself as being amazed at the confidence of the Hawke’s Bay people, in face of the catastrophe which overwhelmed them in 1931, and he added that if only the rest of the Dominion would follow the example set by Napier townspeople the road to prosperity would be made a good deal shorter than many people believed it to be.

Hawke’s Bay optimism was an object lesson for many of the croakers who said the country was passing through terrible times and it would he a long while before better days would come, he said. Conditions were not as bad as many people believed them to be, and, relatively speaking, New Zealand were infinitely better off than many of the older countries, America in particular. “New Zealanders want prosperity, but in my humble opinion they could be a good deal more cheerful about it, for brighter times are undoubtedly ahead, and not very far away either. A good many people who are complaining are just the people who should be (and could be) spending more than they are. If we would only spend what we can, and buy just a little more than we do now, we should provide extra employment, and gradually get back to work the unfortunate mew. who to-day are in the ranks of the unemployed. “There is justification for this optimism. Wool is commanding good prices, and consumption is better than that of any other primary product you could mention. “Wise spending and more considered optimism—deliberate optimism —will bring back confidence. There seems to me to be every reason for it in this country.”