MONEY TIGHT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19546, 7 April 1926, Page 8

MONEY TIGHT

RESTRICTED PURCHASES IN 1 AUCKLAND. EASTER BUSINESS SHOWS FALL ING OFF. Money is reported to have been tight in Auckland at Easter. The shopkeepers say so, and that other financial barometer, the totalisator, shows a severe shrinkage on receipts. Easter trade in the shops has not been very brisk. For the majority of them business was confined to purchasing necessities to carryover the Easter period. The impression gained by a large number of business people was that money is tight, and iu anticipation of what they fear may be a hard winter people are buying with caution and discrimination.

Several reasons were advanced for the comparative inertness of trade. “Too much money is locked up in land and motor cars,’’ said one man who has carried on business in Queen Street for the past twenty-four years. ”1 can well remember the time when Easter was a boom period for shopkeepers.’ ’ Increase of travelling facilities between country districts and the city was given as a reason for the diminished trade In former days people made a practice of going to the city at Christmas and Easter to make extensive purchases of things more or less luxuries. Now they arc able to go more frequently. “I think the fact that the financial year of the Government and many local bodies and business firms ended on March 31 has had much to do with the restraining influence on trade,” said another business man. “Now they aro starting out on a new year, I thinkthings will improve.” Ono of the heads of a large drapery establishment said his experience this Easter was that, although not buoyant, business was quite normal. An early Easter did not favour his line of trade. The weather was still fairly warm and people were not yet making winter purchases. They were buying cautiously and not lavishly. Reports of some of the smaller drapers wero not so encouraging. They stated that this was a bad Easter for them and they accounted for it by an all-round shortage of money. Jewellers had nothing much to complain about. “We cannot growl,” said one. “Business has been fairly good." Easter is a favourite marriage period and consequently jewellers reap the benefit through the purchase of presents.

An important aspect of trade in Auckland during the past few years has been the increase in the number of shops in the suburbs. People who a few years ago went into the city to do their shopping now find they can purchase many of their needs in their own district. This is influencing business in the city.