A NOTE OF HOPE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 15746, 10 February 1922, Page 5

A NOTE OF HOPE.

ECONOMIC PROSPECTS GROWING BRIGHTER.

CHEERING SIGNS ALL ROUND

Before the formal business of the council of the Central Chamber of Commerce- Wellington was taken, the president (Mr. A. L. Hunt) said that he would like to sound a note of hope for tlie future, not only of New Zealand 1 , but of other countries. He thought that, on the whole, the outlook was now a good deal brighter and more favorable than it had been for some time past. His hearers had all suffered during the war, but the experience forced upon them had, he felt sure, made them better' business men., Even if the war clouds lnid‘ not altogether rolled away, there was the prospect of a much better state of affairs throughout the world as a. result of the Washington Conference. He also dwelt on the settlement of the Irish question, and the rehabilitation of the- pound sterling in the markets of the world. The £1 stood at dollars in New York, higher than it had beensinee 1914. Mention was also made of the good 1 likely to arise from the big economic conference to be held at Genoa, which would probably have a widereaching effect. There had recently been raised in London several large loans at quite reasonable rates of interest-, promising earlier finance. The outlook for wool was improving, cheese was firm, and the butter market was improving. All t-hes intluences would serve to loosen the money which l *'liad been locked' up in the Savings Bank and 1 elsewhere. So that, viewing everything, he thought that the general outlook was distinctly promising, and members of the council should strike that note whenever they could. j Mr. C : . B. Buxton said it was cheering to hear tlie president strike a note of optimism. He had dwelt on the chief primary products, but there were other products that wore going to play a part in New Zealand’s future.' It was not generally known that New Zealand posv sessed the fourth largest iron deposit in the world, and of those ahead of New 1 Zealand one was within the Arctic Circle and one in Central India—both unworkable. He thought the Agricultural Department, which liad done good work in the past, might extend 1 its sphere of usefulness, as was done in the United Stales, which had suffered just as much in its farming interests as had the rest of the world. lie thought New Zealand was the most favorably situated country in the world. It was very productive, did not suffer from droughts, was more richly endowed with minerals than most countries, and had waterpower running to waste from one end of tlie country to the other'.