BUSINESS EXPANSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18275, 16 December 1922, Page 9

BUSINESS EXPANSION.

KARANGAHAPE ROAD SHOPS.

REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENT

The concluding luncheon of the Karangahape Eoad Business Men's Association mid-day gatherings was held at Rush-Munro's cafe, yesterday, the function being attended by the Mayor, Mr. J. H. Gunson. There was a large attendance of members of the association, Mr. M. J. Bennett presiding. The luncheon was followed by musical items by Messrs. W. Hart and M. Ward, and an address by Mr. Gunson.

In speaking of the wonderful progress made in the Karangahape Road distnci; in recent years, Mr. Gunson- submitted figures showing that; the, total annual value, from end to end of the road, had increased from £7514 in 1900 to £54,044 in the present year. The figures for the total capital value were equally striking, showing an increase from £150,280 to £1,080,920. Trie road had now come to be, as the , association rightly claimed, the leading retail thoroughfare of the city. In connection with the remarkable increase in the figures given, continued Mr. Gunson, it could not be said that " the council had bumped up the rates," for the City Council had really nothing to do with rate assessments, despite the popular opinion to the contrary, lijiswai the work of the rating officer, who. although appointed by the council, carried out his duties according to the provisions of the Rating Act. It would have been a sheer impossibility to have obtained such an increase in the figures given without sound business prosperity at the back of it, and in the achievement of this the Business Men's Association had played no small part. Reviewing financial conditions during the poet-war period, Mr. Gunson gave an interesting explanation of the causes directly responsible for the 1920 boom and the following year's slump, particularly emphasising the need for caution on j the part of business men so far as the future is concerned. The establishment, of a tariff which would adequately protect locnl industries was advocated, tiie speaker quoting the excellent results achieved by certain States in America as a result of the introduction of the McKinley tariff in years gone by. In concluding his address, the speaker reminded those -present that solid business prosperity could not be built up on temporarily inflated values, but only on the purchasing power of the people. If tha business men could attack some of the. matters that needed remedy and could help to build up a yet stronger industrial antT commercial life, then they would have done a great deal not only for Auckland but for the whole Dominion.