OPTIMISM IN AUSTRALIA

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1931, Page 16

OPTIMISM IN AUSTRALIA

recent change noted. MAKING BEST OF LEAN TIMES. ‘’Although, conditions generally in Sydney and Melbourne are far from encouraging, the position is hardly as bad as one • might be led to believe from newspaper reports published in Australia and cabled to New Zealand,” said Mr. C. Rosenbaum, managing director of the Dominion Life Insurance Company, who returned to Wellington on Tuesday from a visit to Australia. ' ; As far as the insurance business was concerned, Mr. Rosenbaum said, most of the big insurance , concerns in Australia were experiencing very , lean times. Men who used to make salaries of over £2OOO a year considered themselves lucky now iw they nfake £5OO. His impression generally, however, was that the past two months had produced a feeling of optimism—-so much so. that there was good ground for the belief that the rockbottom of the depression had been '■ ■ ' One thing that; was very noticeable in and near the cities was the shortage of cash for anything luxurious. More especially was that so at race meetings, where men who not so long ago thought nothing of risking £25 or £5O now limited theip betting activities to £5 or even ‘'The so-called poverty is; more.apparent in the suburbs than in the cities,” said Mr. Rosenbaum. “One has only to get into personal touch-with the small business people out in . the. suburbs and one finds that quite a number of them are receiving sustenance. It is two years since I was previously in Australia, and I certainly noticed a great difference. The only thing that is practically the same from a financial point of view is that the public still seems to be able- to produce enough money to go to the pictures fairly frequently.” , . ■ Speaking of Federal political affairs, Mr. Rosenbaum said the general feeling seemed to be that the party dr eombination of parties headed by Mr. J. A. Lyons was a certainty at the coining election on December 19. He thought a change of Government in Australia would bring about a change for the better, and that seemed, to be the general feeling among the business people he had talkd with.