BETTER TIMES COMING.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 296, 14 December 1931, Page 4

BETTER TIMES COMING.

New Zealand in Vanguard of

Recovery.

“We are all suffering from the horrible difficulties which are besetting the whole world, but I am sufficiently optimistic to think that in a year or two we shall be through them, and I think that I have seen enough of New Zealand to be able to predict that she will be in the vanguard of that recovery.” This statement was made yesterday by Mr A. W. Gent, one of the principal executive officers in London of the P. and O. Company, who is at present visiting New Zealand. Mr Gent said that he had been connected with the passenger trade between London and New Zealand for thirty years. While he had met a large number of New Zealanders in London, it was the first time he had come to the Dominion. He believed that one result of his visit would be that he would be able to assist New Zealand when he returned by being a missionary on behalf of this Dominion. When he returned and was discussing New Zealand business, he would be able to say that he had seen the country and appreciated its possibilities. Improvement in Business. Mr Gent left England before the general election, but in letters which he has received there is a feeling of greater confidence in the future, and hopes of a very definite improvement in business generally. If that was so, he said, all parts of the Empire would benefit by it. Once things began to improve at Home, the dominions were bound to benefit. Recognition of the grave nature of the world’s economic problem did not imply pessimism, said Mr Gent. On the contrary, the danger was immeasurably more acute before the statesmen of all countres began to think internationally. He had no doubt that our statesmen and their financial advisers were considering seriously two important steps—the first the question of reparations and war debts, and the second the devising of a sound method of currency reform. Of the two the second was, in his judgment, by far the more difficult. All the shipping companies had been hit by the slackness of trade, added Mr Gent, and as far as they were concerned, their condition would not improve until world conditions improved. The P. and O. Line, and its associated companies, were optimistic and were providing the most modern type of vessel for all classes of tourists.