AUSTRALIA'S RECOVERY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18661, 22 March 1935, Page 11

AUSTRALIA'S RECOVERY

A NOTE OF CAUTION BANK SURVEYS CONDITIONS A note of caution is struck by the National Bank of Australasia, Limited, in a survey of the business recovery shown by Australia during the past fewyears. The bank states :—"The improvement recorded during the past two years in many departments of the economic and social activities of the community has led to a belief among some people that Australia has not only reversed the movement which led into the depression but is well on the road to a new prosperity. It is undoubted that an appreciable measure of recovery has been made since 1931, but the improvement is not widely enough spread through the various sections of the community, neither does it rest upon a secure enough foundation to justify the optimistic statements made by certain publicists and some business men as to a general and substantial recovery. "The fact should not be lost sight of that Australia" is still well below the level of prosperity of the decade ended in 1930. Not only are internal affairs and conditions less favorable at present than in the prc-depression period, but external conditions appeal' much less conducive to recovery and a stable prosperity than in the early part of the depression. World markets continue to shrink, commodity prices seem likely to be on a low level for some time to come, and have shown no real buoyancy for quite a while. "When the outside world has acquired stability in political relations and financial affairs, and when wool, wheat and butter are restored to profitable export prices, then, provided the Governmental authorities continue to conduct their administrations and finances along sound lines, we will be able to say with confidence that the depression has been markedlv lessened."