NEED FOR OPTIMISM

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 28, 3 February 1932, Page 3

NEED FOR OPTIMISM

GROCERS' OPINION

"We draw the curtain upon the year 1931, and lift the veil on 1932, with a natural anxiety toward a future that is. shrouded in ..uncertainty. As the closing year has been, full of difficulties and disappointments, so is the future brimful of possibilities and probabilities," said Mr. E. Gray (Kaiapoi), in his presidential address to the Master Grocers' Federation yesterday.

"In spite of; the:present.gloomy outlook, we have a great deal to be thank-; ful for. Wool prices show:a rising ten-: deney, the exports for last year were some millions in excess of the . imports, and •we are at peace; our banking'system is in happy contrast to the American, and our resources are such that if, necessary, New Zealand could be almost self-contained. What we do want is a sane optimism that will beget that spirit of confidence upon which the business'world is built. . -

"Pessimism and long faces will never get us on the road.to prosperity again," he continued. "Optimism^ perseverance, and loyalty to lOur.own country are the stimulants to see us through a very sick period, in. our country Js history. "Temporarily compelled to stand upon our own legs and utilise the resources of our own country, to a greater degree, instead of depending :upon, the outside world, has come somewhat! in the nature of a shock. That it -will bo to our country's benefit, I feel sure, and if it does nothing else than remove the bias that has existed against New Zealand-manufactured 'goods; and is the means of creating a spirit :of greater loyalty to our own country, all this tribulation will not have been in vain."