A NEW YEAR MESSAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 7 January 1921, Page 1

A NEW YEAR MESSAGE

In the course of a New Year message, Mr Harold Beauchamp, chairman of the Bank of New Zealand, says:—

“ In connection with my recent utterances on financial matters, I have been accused of pessimism bv several newspaper critics, simply because 1 have endeavoured to show the need that exists to-day for the excise of economy and prudence by all classes of the community. Many people, I fancy, would prefer to adopt the ostrich-like policy of digging tlicir heads in the sand and refusing to see the dangers that, surround them. That, of course, is neither wise nor prudent. After thirty years of almost uninterrupted prosperity it is, I am a ware, difficult for those who do not think deeply to recognise the complete reversal of the economic and financial conditions that has taken place through the terrible war in which we, as an Empire, were engaged for upwards of four years. True, many people amassed much wealth during that period, as was the case in previous wars, but I have no hesitation in affirming that .the masses as a whole, particularly in Great Britain, are distinctly poorer than they were prior to Hie outbreak of hostilities, and it will, I believe be many years before it is possible to make good the leeway lost while fighting for our lives and liberties. That can only he accomplished by working harder, producing more, and spending less on the luxuries to which we have accustomed ourselves in the halcyon days of the past. “Further, there must be greater eooperntion and a bettor understanding between capital and labour. By the adoption of such a policy the financial equilibrium in this Dominion, so highly favoured by nature in the matter oi climate and fertility of soil, would be speedily restored.”