The Waikato Times SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1933. SUMMER TIME.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19070, 7 October 1933, Page 6

The Waikato Times SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1933. SUMMER TIME.

To-morrow the clocks of New Zealand will be advanced half an hour in accordance with the legislation which reached the Statute Book after years of persevering endeavour by the late Sir Thomas Sidej r . The second Sunday in October has acquired something of the distinction of a milestone in our progress, for it marks the official entry into what we are pleased to call suhimer. Of recent years, however, summer has been welcomed not so much as the season of holidays and of more general recreation, but as a breathing-space during which distress is less prevalent and calls for assistance are less frequent and less insistent. According to popular belief summer is tile season during which the measure of our return to prosperity can be more cleayly noted, and movements of recovery can be initiated which may or may not acquire sufficient permanence to carry them through the succeeding winter. It is, of course, to be expected that the stimulus given to industry and trade in the Northern Hemisphere during the summer which is now closing, should produce favourable reactions in this Country during the next few months. Owing to the very nature of our economic existence, which is so directly dependent upon conditions and market reactions overseas, our recovery is necessarily bound up in the progress which is made in other and older countries. But it is no way to be assumed on that account that We must he Committed to a policy of whiting for the tide* So far as overseas influences are concerned the steady upward movement of commodity prices, notwithstanding speculatory and temporary fluctuations in some cases, offers grounds for increased confidence, but the lead should he given by the Government. It will not be denied that the cautious and conservative policy, accompanied by a rigid prosecution of economies, which has enabled the Government to weather the trials of the past three years, is worthy of admiration—-nor has the Government been backward in claiming praise for its efforts. There is, however, a stage in the affairs of any nation, corporation or business, where caution can be carried to excess. 1 Courage and vision are the requisites of those who lead", ami the time is at hand when they must be displayed. The Australian Government has presented a Budget which embodies just that vision • and daring which is likely to engender confidence, and the example * is one which might Well be emulated in New Zealand, though not necessarily to the same degree., * 1 \ , Upon the members of the community as individuals there lies < the duty of taking their share in working for recovery. Passive ' action is useless, for the time has come when those who can take the initiative by increasing employment or releasing a little more purchasing power must make a move if the country as a whole is to be stirred to help itself. The approaching summer offers the opportunity for a renewal of endeavour, and much can be accomplished in the next six months if there is but the will to succeed.