THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1931. NEW ZEALAND IN 1931.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21068, 30 December 1931, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1931. NEW ZEALAND IN 1931.

In looking back over the year 1901, and in estimating what it has brought, of weal or woe to tills Dominion of New Zealand, it must be remembered that it opened without, inflated expectations or unfounded optimism. The country was then bowed to the economic storm which had swept the world. The community had to recognise that it, was face to face with adversity and that its powers of resistance were to be tested. Now, when the year is at. its close, it can be admitted with thankfulness that though the future, undisclosed on January I, 1931, contained some shocks of adversity additional to the steady pressure already foreseen, though that pressure has continued almost unabated for I*2 full months, the country has not faltered. The turn in fortune's tide has not come, but the people have been patient and enduring while waiting for it. It was not. long after the year had opened that its greatest, most unexpected, and most devastating blow fell, the Ilawke's Bay earthquake of February »'S. This, a tragedy which echoed throughout the world, which brought in its train a. host of smaller tragedies masked by the appalling roll of *283 lives lost in direct consequence of the upheaval, was accepted by those affected directly with .a stoicism which roused the admiration of all who witnessed it, directly or by deputy. The universal expressions of sorrow and sympathy which proved how high New Zealand stood in the estimation of the world were accompanied by predictions that the calibre of the people would prove itself in the face of disaster. The trust was justified. Though the mourning for those wlio fell victim to the disaster is not ended, the work of repair, the removal of the material scars, proceeds with calmness and with resolution.

If in the beginning of the year it was felt that there would be further calls on the national endurance while waiting for the rise from depression, it soon became known that emergency measures to tide, over until that happened would be necessary. Parliament-was summoned to meet in 31 arch for a special session. Its whole task then was to handle and authorise measures to buttress the national finances, menaced by the general conditions of the country. Salary reductions affecting the servants of the State were authorised. Power was, given the Arbitration Court to vary current awards by general order, so that industry might be given recuperative power. By the end of May that had resulted in a general reduction of wages equal to the salary cuts imposed on the public service. The other act of note during that session was the removal of the railways from political control, they being placed under an independent board. This body being given an opportunity to pronounce on construction policy, the two phases of railway control were brought under t!)e judgment of men not involved in political considerations. When the main session of Parliament opened unemployment, that problem which has been pressing on the country with increased intensity, early demanded attention. A new system of levying on wages, salary and personal income to provide relief funds, coupled with a change in the level of the old tlat rate levy, was instituted. By this measure, a reconstitution of the board and a promise of altered policy, an effoft was made to grapple with a threatening social situation. When the Budget appeared it revealed a further deterioration of the national finances and proposed new and drastic taxation to meet the position. The session drifted along in rather indecisive fashion after the Budget until, toward the end of August, the Leader of the Opposition made a dramatic move by proposing that an economy committee, representing all sections in Parliament, should be established to overhaul the national finances. His plan was accepted, the committee sat for several weeks without producing the hoped for plan of economy. It ended as dramatically as it began with the formation of a Coalition Government by the Beform and United Parties. How this new authority adopted a supplementary Budget involving even more drastic efforts to secure a balance than those originally proposed, how, with it in the saddle, Parliament adopted the advice of the Railways Board to suspend the construction of six railway lines—including the much-debated South Island Main Trunk—how an election was held

and the Coalition gained a substantial majority is all too recent to require recalling in detail. Since the election two economic happenings, the opening of I lie woo) sales with s, range of prices that have proved generally disappointing, and the announcement of a plan for the pooling and control of foreign exchanges have maintained to the. last the realisation of 10.TI as a year with economic issues in the ascendant. To break away from them it is necessary to go back over the calendar. It. can then be recalled that early in the year the first solo flight from Australia to New Zealand was successfully made. During the European summer a team of young New Zcalanders played cricket in England and Scotland, winning new laurels for skill, sportsmanship and conduct. In August the whole country was kept waiting tense and fearful of tragedy for days and nights while search was made for a parly of young people, lost in the snow and on the bush-clad lower slopes of Jluapehu. Though the end was tragedy, the loss of one promising young life, the toll was infinitely less than it might have been. So as the year ID3I unrolled it brought its tale of hope and anxiety, of reassurance and disappointment, of tragedy and relief to the country.