NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1934. NEW YEAR CONFIDENCE

Northern Advocate, 31 December 1934, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1934. NEW YEAR CONFIDENCE

Registered for transmission through the post as a- Newspaper.

Just before the end of 1933, when New Zealand folk were down in the dumps, wondering if the “depression” were going to be an everlasting incubus, old Father Fate sparked up his battery and scattered a scintillating diffusion of light in the darkness. Wool prices took an abnormal leap, and immediately the gloom was dispelled, ushered into the limbo of the past, and forgotten. Rejoicing took the place of despair, and there was a lavish flux of free spending unequalled for yeais agone. Actually the inherent financial capacity ot the Dominion public was there all the time, and needed only the fillip of some such encouragement to justify its liberation. If that Avere the case twelve months ago, lioav much more reason there is at the end of 1934 to assert with confidence the real soundness of the Dominion’s monetary status, especially as avool prices have shoAvn a serious decline and the great staple dairy industry discloses very little market advancement —save for a casual uplift in the last two or three days; and since, in spite of these detractions, far more public money Avas laid out during the recent Christmas period than in that of 1933. This is no loose statement; the consensus of reports from practically every metropolitan and provincial centre —by no means excluding Whangarei—go to confirm it. Indeed, taking our own North Auckland “metropolis” as a fair criterion of the whole country, it may be said th.at tradespeople, almost without exception, express the utmost satisfaction with the pre-Christ-mas Aveek turnover. We have, too, the facts that the Government has been enabled to cut down the shilling-in-the-pound unemployment levy by one sixth—small, but significant—that there has been a. sufficient national sum afloat to give some monetary recognition to the relief worker, and that a Budget surplus is in view, contrasted

with the crippling defects of several preceding annual financial statements. In all this, therefore, we perceive an inspiration tor '>1935 that is as acceptable as it is rare.

At this autocratic stage of the calendar’s dividing line, also, it is fitting that one should contemplate what may he called the ethical stages ol the march of lime, which goes inexorably on and carries mankind with it, along the stream ,of destiny. Let us reflect that lite, from the. cradle to the grave, is made up of desire and disappointment. struggle and achievement, and though it may not eve]’ be given to us to reach the topmost peak of our ambition, the stout heart, never gives up striving. There has at no time been a year without its mistakes —the mistakes of the nations and the mistakes of the individual. The year .1934 is no exception in that it has been permeated with them, but it is on our mistakes that we build for the better. Man is full of imperfections—it is an imperfect world where humanity is concerned —always has been, and probably-always will be. But we incline to the opinion that it is a better world than it v, : as. Knowledge has increased, and, notwithstanding passing phases ol levity, there has been a growing appreciation of moral and spiritual values, a widening human kindness. Sometimes, as we have observed the conflicting currents of international affairs, we have been prone to despair of over finding a solution for the troubles that afflict the inhabitants of the. world, but, in the knowledge that all progress lias been the shield of. conflict, theic has persisted the dominating spirit of hope for the best. Out of discontent and the clash of opinion upon opinion, all great reforms have come.

There is always something in which consolation may l f u‘ found, no matter the disabilities, of life and the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. ” So far as our philosophy will enable us to grasp the present-day situation, we live in an age of comfort and luxury compared with a ■century ago, and every succeeding generation has contributed to this end. After the efforts of men like Wilberforce and Shaftesbury and Dickens, there still remained many abuses to be wiped out, many reforms to be introduced; and no one with any knowledge of modern history can deny that the world has been made a better and a happier place. Still, no age is without its problems, no generation, no single year even. The spectre of unemployment in all civilised countries today is a grim reminder of this. The whole social and economic structure of the world has been shaken, and probably at no time in history has there been a greater need for wise leadership; yet, one by one, man has faced the problems that have arisen and has eventually surmounted them, so that, as far as the future is concerned, we may confidently voice the “hope that springs eternal in the human breast” and go forward with faith removed. This factoi is very encouragingly emphasised in the New Year message of New Zealand’s Prime Minister, as published today. Therein, Mi Forbes presents comparative figures which disclose, for 11 months of 1934, an increase in the value of Dominion exports of no less than £7,860,000, and similarly a growth in the value of imports to the extent of £6,120,000, as against the corresponding period of 1933, while the number of men wholly or partially a charge on the Unemployment Fund is less than it was by approximately 16.000. These figures, coupled with the fact that the volume of holiday jourueyings is much greater than hitherto, provide cheerful indications of a restored national confidence, an uplift of the country’s affairs in which all, to greater or lessor extent, have the pleasure and privilege of participation.