DEPLORABLE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18502, 14 September 1934, Page 8

DEPLORABLE

BRISBANE SUFFERING HEAVY TAXATION To the ordinary man passing through, the. .impression gained was that Sydney was ‘booming, said Mr. D. Ivavanagli, who has just returned from a trip to Queensland. A talk with the shopkeepers and other business men, however, soon changed that view. Conditions there were much the same as in New Zealand—shops being let and the owners, in many cases, not receiving any rent.

Mr. Kavanagh was previously in Sydney four years ago, and then, in the ' heart of the business centre—Pitt and George streets—there were many shops to let. On this occasion lie found that most of them had been taken. ■ Business conditions in Brisbane were much the same as in Sydney. The ' people, however, were “absolutely taxed out of house and home.’’ In instancing this, Mr. Kavanagh said that the Victoria Bridge, in his opinion, would have been sufficient to carry all the traffic for the next 20 years, yet the Government had gone about a ciuarter of a mile downstream and built a bridge costing in the vicinity of £2,C00.0C0. Not satisfied with this, they were contemplating building another bridge at Kangaroo Point-, about another mile downstream, and this was estimated to cost about £2,C00,000. The Brisbane Town llall cost £1,500,000. The population was in the vicinity of 530,000, and yet the Government continued to build Government buildings. It was deplorable to see the number of big shops that were empty, and they appeared as though they liad been empty for years. “Clothing and shoes were very cheap, and he had purchased a good pair of box calf shoes for 6s lid. Potatoes cost round about £8 10s a ton, and they were of a shrivelled type that would hardly he classed as second-grade pig potatoes in New Zes land. Most of them were from Tasmania. Mr Kavanagh said the merchants were frightened of blight in the New Zealand potatoes. During the 1100-mile run by road and rail from Sydney to Rockhampton by the coastal road be did not see any sheep A farmer explained that he could put 150 sheep in a {naddock and in a fortnight there would not be one left, so great were the raids carried out by dingoes.

Mr. Kavanagh described thy tram service in Brisbane as wonderful. By taking a one shilling ticket a visitor could travyl over all the routes during the day. The service extended out some seven 'miles, but the trains were not quite as up-to-date as those rn Christ church.