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Otago Witness, Issue 4041, 25 August 1931, Page 25

“In another six /weeks or tw-o months things will begin to brighten,” said a 'Christchurch business man to a Sun reporter the other -day. “For the past four months prices have remained steady; very law, certainly, but at least steady. Most business people consider that this stabilisation of prices at even such a low figure is a hopeful sign. Wages will. never be as high again, but that will not' impair efficiency. I can remember the Weka Pass railway being put through, in good time, -.by men earning from 2s -6d to 3s 6ff a day. And there wasn’t a grumbler among them.” The Arabs says, Drink -of the Nile waters and you will come back to drink them again.” Something similar seems to happen at Mount Cook, even to those who confine themselves to the smaller climbs. “A day’s clambering on the lower hills and aeeflows (writes Mr James -Cowan, in the New Zealand Railways Magazine), usually convinces the tyro that a 10,000 or 12,000-foot peak is not for him this season. He is captured, however. Onee he sets foot on the mountains, samples the peculiar joy of chipping -steps -with an ice-axe on the clean, hard, bottle-green or blue-shadowed ice. or descending some /snowslope on the dizzy ski —even if he lands nose-down and feet up in the. process—the mountains have him in their grip. He—or she—will return 1 again and again.”