FACING OUR TASK.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 18 January 1932, Page 4

FACING OUR TASK.

During the closing weeks of 1930 not a few well known New Zealand politicians and speakers expressed the view that the depression was only a state of mind. The year 1931 cured that illusion, as taxation direct and indirect increased with a weight which previously would have been regarded with equal incredulity, and unemployment assumed dimensions unimagined in this sparsely-populat-ed Dominion. The extent of our national drift rapidly became interpreted in signs not to be mistaken. The inescapable distress and material loss were a challenge to New Zealand patriotism and endurance. To such a challenge there was never any doubt of the response. The Government, pursuing its extravagant way during the past year, and at the same time advising the people to economise while it squandered money, has now been forced by the London moneylenders to curb its expenditure; that is why that scandalous proposal to build a new post office at Dunedin has been abandoned for the time being. We believe now that we have touched the depths of the depression, and we know that by concentration on the task ahead we can pull through. Had the Government of this country conducted its business on the same lines as some of our local bodies —the Masterton Borough Council for instance there would have been less heard to-day of government extravagance and much less of depression.