OLD YEAR WAS WORST IN MODERN TIMES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19267, 2 January 1931, Page 1

OLD YEAR WAS WORST IN MODERN TIMES.

BRIGHTER PROSPECTS, SAYS MR MACDONALD

"Tnited Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, January 1. The New Year was heralded with the usual festivities. The crowd outside St Paul s at midnight was huge, but not so large as last year. The feature of the Chelsea Arts ball at the Albert Hall was a gigantic cracker, from which, when it was pulled, sprang a number of girl students. Newspaper comments correctly reflect the opinion of the country that 1930 was a disastrous year, and the hope that 1931 will be better, but the prospect is not too bright. The “ Daily Telegraph ” describes the old year as decrepit and discredited, the worst in modern times.

“ The Times ” says that a bad year has- been made immeasurably" worse through the Government being in incapable hands. No Government was ever so utterly discredited. Mr MacDonald, in an interview -in the “ Daily’- Herald,” said that it had been a hard year, with never such a tragic demonstration of the truth of the Socialist case. The machinery of capitalism was bound to break down. A few financiers in New York, London and Paris were pursuing their own ends and their own fortunes. They were able to destroy the fruits of good harvests and the productive accomplishments of human energy, with the result that prices had fallen. A sense of insecurity had spread over the world and had descended steadily to the darkest depression. Fortunately*, there were signs that the country had reached the bottom of the decline, and an upward move was beginning. The “ Morning Post ” says that there are two main causes for the depression —Socialism, which meant wages without work, and Communism, meaning work without wages. World conditions were to Mr MacDonald what predestination was to his Calvinist forefathers, namely, a sufficient substitute for good work.