"CHEER UP" CAMPAIGNS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 109, 11 May 1931, Page 8

"CHEER UP" CAMPAIGNS

"New Zealand Draper," in comment which was quoted !in "The Post" Trade and Finance columns on Saturday, gave a candid opinion of I the "Cheer Up Week" held in Auckland recently. Though well organised t and popular, the effort was not a success from the business viewpoint. We do not wish to disparage organised effort. Splendid work has been! done and can still be done by such means to brighten trade.; Concerted efforts to demonstrate to the public the .range: and quality 'of local manufactures,' for example, are of great value at a time like this. But we can agree heartily with the "Draper" that "cheer up" talk alone is valueless. The New Zealand temperament docs not respond to speech mummery as the "burying of general depression" which appears to be popular! jin America. There must be sound 'reason behind the "cheer-up" talk or it fails to convince. Some people are inclined to hold that there has been 'too much pjessimism in affairs, too much talk of depression, and too much advice to economise. Possibly caution has been overdone in some quarters; but, if there has been an excess of carefulness with some, others have refused to admit that there is any need for ordering public economy anew. Generally it may be said that New Zealanders are not frothblowers. They do not sink down into . the dumps because someone delivers a jeremiad, and they are not to be raised to heights of optimism by a chorus. It is better that this should be so than that business should be 'subject to periodic boom and panic j conditions according to community moods. A sensible community that takes account of facts can attain the mastery over circumstances. This we can do in New Zealand. We are doing it now. Recognising that a' period of great prosperity has loaded us with the top-hamper of extravagance—publicly and ■■privately—we are taking the only reasonable course, the only sure way, in redressing the balance. To adopt a different metaphor, this business surgery is painful at the time, but it is the only way to regain business health. Autosuggestion will not bring a cure. But there is no need to become mournful concerning the seriousness of, the operation. The patient's heart is sound, and if we steadily refuse to adopt quackery, recovery should be sure. . .