A HAPPY FOLK.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 931, 29 November 1933, Page 7

A HAPPY FOLK.

Improvement of Business in Sydney. BUILDING GOES AHEAD. Business is on the up grade in New South Wales, and the people there are a happy, carefree, and most hospitable folk. That is the impression of Mr E. Lockwood, of Paton and Lockwood, who has just returned from a visit to Sydney. While he maintains that Australia has her troubles just as well as New Zealand, and that over-optimism is far from justified, Mr Lockwood brings back a description of industrial and social conditions that is distinctly cheerful. Mr Lockwood noticed a big change in Sydney since his last visit five years ago. One of the noticeable features was the change in the volume of pedestrian traffic since the advent of the underground railways. The system had diverted a lot of the traffic from some of the main streets to others, and as a result some business houses had suffered and others reaped the benefit. There were a great number of large buildings which had sprung up in recent years. “ Most of the firms I visited were very busy,” said Mr Lockwood. “ They report a great improvement in business, and are looking forward to a big Christmas trade. * Wasn't the depression terrible? ’ was their favourite by-word. I saw a big tyre factory and a wireless manufacturing plant, and both were working at full pressure. The rise in the price of wool was followed by a great demand for radio sets by farmers. On one floor in the radio factory I saw 100 young men working together, and factories handling ice chests and refrigerating machines had their output booked till after Christmas.” Canberra Growing. Mr Lockwood was greatly interested in his visit to Canberra. Despite protests from some quarters that the new capital was an unnecessarw expense, the city was growing. There was' a shortage of 500 houses there. Canberra was the perfect ‘type of garden city, with beautiful streets, parks and gardens. When Mr Lockwood visited the Parliament buildings the subject of wheat was under discussion, and it seemed that Australia was going to afford even closer protection to her own wheatgrowing industry. With all the increase in business, there were still a large number of unemployed in and around Sydney. The Water Board had just found relief work for 3000. There were New Zealanders among the unemployed, too. AJr Lockwood, when he returned to New Zealand, was surprised to find the rise in the general tone of the community. It was quite on a par with the outlook in Australia. “ They are great people for sport of all kinds,” Mr Lockwood. concluded, “ an d they are a happy and free-and-easy folk. Girls will go down to the factories in their bathing costumes, with a pair of overalls on top, and when the work ends they will exchange the overalls for a light frock and go straight to the beach before tea. They do not seem to take work as seriously as we do here.”