A WORD IN SEASON

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 141, 11 December 1929, Page 16

A WORD IN SEASON

PESSIMISM DEPLORED

ADVICE TO INVESTORS

AUCKLAND, This Day.

'. The pessimistic outlook with which the (financial and industrial position in New .'Zealand is sometimes viewed in certain ; quarters was strongly condemned by Mr. ; G. C. Creagh, chairman of the Auckland Stock Exchange, in his annual address.

"While there may be .those -who, partly 83 a result of, recent happenings, are 'doubtful o£ the future," he said, "I, for .one, can see no reason for despondency," ■As he had done for many years past, he .again wished to strike the optimistic note. -He had every confidence in New Zealand ■ and in its people, and it had always been .difficult for him to'listen to the melancholy foreboding of that numerous section 'of aociety .which sees with the greatest '.clearness into the darkest perspective. ' A representative of that class was to be -found in the president of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, who, in a .Tecent address, painted a very dismal piel+ure of what he considered the future :held for the people of this country. His remarks were based largely upon supposition, and contained no evidence in sup.port of his contentions.

. It was the wail of a pessimist, and a pessimist was! not one who was ever likely to do any good for this country, for 'he was essentially a destructionist.

' After referring to the recent Wall Street •panic, the seriousness of which it was .■difficult to gauge in New Zealand, Mr. Creagh said that such a panic in this ■Dominion was hardly possible. Anybody 'who thought so, ignored the outstanding difference between the sharemarkcts in America and those in New Zealand. In the United States much of the business "was done on margins, whereas in New Zealand the bulk of it was done for cash. ' So far as the depression which had re'ccntly been affecting the Australian and New Zealand investment markets was ■concerned, he was of opinion that the policy of rushing out of good and tried investments adopted by so many investors at such a time was not always the wisest. Only too often it helped to make a weak market weaker. Holders of .gilt-edged securities would in the majority of cases act in their best interests by holding on.