INDUSTRY DEPRESSED

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 129, 27 November 1929, Page 13

INDUSTRY DEPRESSED

AUSTRALIA'S PROBLEMS

TRAFFIC IN SYDNEY

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day. Further reports of industrial depression in Australia are brought back to New Zealand by Mr. G. W. Hutchison, a well-known Auckland accountant and member of the City Council, who returned from a business visit to Sydney by the" Ulimaroa yesterday/ All the States, except, perhaps, Western Australia, were feeling the pinch of bad times, Mr. Hutchison said. The position was so serious that one large Melbourne firm was even advertising a "depression sale."

' Business in Sydney is in a very bad way," said Mr. Hutchison. "There has been a bad season for production, and at present the Commonwealth is working on a bank overdraft in London of £20,000,000, at 6 per pent. There, appears to be no solution of the financial difficulty."

Traffic control in Sydney seemed to become more difficult every day, Mr. Hutchison continued. It had been found that a comprehensive scheme of street widening was imperative, and this was costing literally millions. The opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge would provide the city wi,th another traffic problem, as it would mean the concentration of continuous streams of traffic on two spots. "In Auckland we should lose no opportunity of catering for future traffic developments," Mr. Hutchison said. Plenty of road space is essential, and we should provide it now. If we wait much longer the cost of widening streets will become enormous. City property values cannot be expected to stand still.

"While I -was in Australia I made an unsuccesssful attempt to get into touch with the Commonwealth Government on the question of deposits required from visitors to- Australia and New Zealand on cars brought with them for their private use. The system is manifestly wrong, and though the National Roads and Motor Association of New feouth Wales is eager to have it dropped, I thmk that an active campaign must be made from this side. "The Sydney Eotary Club is just embarking on a great work," said Mr. Hutchison. "It h as arranged to have every crippled child in Sydney examined by leading surgeons, ana when tne examinations are completed efforts will be made to raise £15,000, so that every case can receive individual attention A citizens' campaign is to bo launched, directed by Sir Henry Braddon, who, incidentally, still retains his affection for New Zealand " Mr. Hutchison went to Sydney primarily to attend the biennial conference of the Australian ana New Zealand Institute of Secretaries. He has previously been president of the New Zealand division of the Institute, but on this occasion he was elected president of the entire organisation.