IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA

Southland Times, Issue 23610, 10 September 1938, Page 2

IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA

“NEW ZEALAND NOT KNOWN” NEWSPAPERS, BUSINESS, MOTORING “New Zealand is not known in America. The country is very selfcentred, and seems to be too busy commercially to bother about the rest of the world,” said Mr J. R. McKenzie, who has returned to Christchurch after a visit to the United States, where he represented the Christchurch Rotary Club at the international Rotary conference at San Francisco. “You. never hear of Australia and New Zealand in the United States,” he said, when asked by The Press if the present social legislation in New Zealand had provoked any comment there, adding that his impressions when travelling confirmed the view he had gained when his firm, before he left the Dominion, received a letter from an American firm inquiring if it would be convenient to communicate in English. New Zealand was vaguely thought of as part of Australia. “It was a treat to come back and get real newspapers again,” he said. “The American newspapers are nothing but headlines. What little news there is is difficult to read because an item begins on one page and after you have read a little of it you have to turn over several pages to find the rest of it. All Australians and New Zealanders are disgusted with the American papery because of their sensationalism and scare headlines.”

AMERICAN BUSINESS RECESSION Mr McKenzie said that signs of recession in American business were very decided. “I am afraid it is going to be a lot worse before it is better,” he said, “and it appears that America is heading for a considerable amount of labour trouble.”

He expressed the view, however, that the recession was purely caused by conditions in America itself, and I not through factors which were likely to spread to New Zealand or other parts of the world and cause a worldwide depression such as the previous one. But conditions in America were not good, and the cost of living was rising very rapidly. Referring to taxation, he said that it was not easy to make any comparison between the extent to which the United States and New Zealand were taxed, because of taxation both by the Federal and state Governments.

“They have the sales tax there, in all but one state as far as I know,” he said. “But our method of administering it is far better. There the retailer has to charge the customer with the tax on every article that is sold. It is often very annoying, as every article, no matter how small the price, is subject to the tax. The consequence of this is that the tax on some articles cannot be paid in a coin of any denomination, and tokens which.are sold for the purpose have to be used. There might be tokens, for instance, sold at 12 to the penny, to be used for paying the exact fractional amount due, and this causes a lot of inconvenience. The tax works out at about the same rate as here, 5 per cent.” TRAFFIC CONTROL PRAISED Mr McKenzie, however, was emphatic in his praise for traffic control in America. “I motored some 6000 miles,” he said, “and I was very much impressed with the observance of the rules of the road, which" is far ahead of that in New Zealand. Many stretches of road are divided into four tracks, two running each’ way, and slow traffic must keep to its own track. “The main roads have the right of way, and there is no rule to give way to the right. At every cross road there is a compulsory stop for motorists approaching the main road, and it is surprising how the rule is observed. The motorists do not come on to the main road till they see that it is clear. This means that cars on the main roads can travel up to the speed limit, which is 60 miles an hour.

“Although there are many accidents in the cities, I did not see one accident in all of the 6000 miles that I travelled, and in the papers I read that accidents had been reduced by from 20 to 25 per cent’” He spoke very highly of the American traffic police. “We get the wrong impression of them from the movies. They are a fine body of men, and most courteous in every way. They travel in conspicuous white cars, with the words ‘police patrol’ painted on them in large letters. They never hide to catch the motorist; they are out to educate him. I was very much impressed with the courtesy of an official who approached me when I ■ was exceeding the speed limit and said: ‘Our speed limit is 60, and we should like you to keep down to that.’ He told me that they were given instructions to act in this manner, and they found that they had far better results from co-operating with the motorist in this way?’ Mr McKenzie said that Los Angeles had far more cars than any other city in the world, mainly because it was so remarkably well provided with parking areas. Many of the big stores provided free parking space for their clients. This meant that people used their own cars, whereas in New York they were obliged to use taxis because parking was so difficult.