The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, DECEMBER, 13, 1913. CHRISTMAS PROSPECTS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 19960, 13 December 1913, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY, DECEMBER, 13, 1913. CHRISTMAS PROSPECTS.

" So far as it is possible for one to judge" said a gentleman whose business takes him practically all over the Do!;n----inion, "Wanganui shows tho least sign of having been injuriously affected by the strike. Indeed., the trading conditions here appear to be as normal as if the strike were non-existent, a happy contrast to the stringent conditions pre- \ ailing in other centres." This, no doubt, is ia correct summary of the position. We have enjoyed comparative immunity from the evil consequences of the strike. A good .many of our business men have suffered serious inconvenience and considerable loss by reason of th© " holding up" at other ports of mueh-neded stocks, and some man ifaeuirers have been handicapped by the inability to guarantee delivery of their manufactures to clients in other parts of the Dominion. But there has been no actual stoppage, no closing down of any important industry, and consequently no workers reduced to the bitter necessity of existing on the miserable pittance of the striker's dole. In Auckland lanl Wellington many hundreds of workers have been reduced to the level of destitution by the folly into which they permitted themselves to be led: by well-paid agitators, and the coming Christmas —now so near at hand —must inevitably be a sad one not only for the strikers themselves, but more particularly for their innocent dependents, the wives and children who have bad no hand in the making and perpetuation of the trouble Our comparative escape from similar disaster warrants tho heartfelt thankfulness <f every member cf the community, and should cause us all to look forward hope- i fully to a truly happy Christmas. Tho chiildren especially should benefit, for they will doubtk'si> be the recipients of ''full stockings" as thank-offerings for the wages which have not been thrown away. Gift-giving—the mutual interchance of tokens of good-will—should ■under the circumstances be even more in evidence in Wanecanui this Christmas than at a time of universal prosperity. The knowledge- of what we all have so fortunately escaped must have engendered a widespread feeling of relief and thankfulness capable of being fittingly, though perhaps unintentionally, expressed by open-handed generosity ono towards the other. And this being so, AVanganui's Christmas trade should be a.s brisk as ever and subject only to the natural and reasonable limitations which ought always to govern the spending powers of a thrifty and prosperous peopie.