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Hokitika Guardian, 28 September 1926, Page 2

There is a general complaint that quiet times are pervading the district. The people in business feel the pinch and the fact that the stringency is not altogether local, but rather general, suggests that there is some universal cause for the condition of affairs. There is the question, too, whether it is a passing phase or a decline in trading which

takes the form of a slump and has a natural course to run. If, however, wo regard passing events at their face value, there is the suggestion apparent that special circumstances are the cause of quiet times, which are produced by a general desire for frugality. This in turn had some main cause, and that appears to be no less a circumstance that the late exhibition.at Dunedin to which all New Zealand trouped in such lavish numbers. That form of entertainment or holiday became a universal observance, with the result that it was the exception rather than the rule to meet people who had not been for the holiday trip. There was thus a lavish spending of means, and the quiet times which are now ensuing, are derived in the main from the necessity of saving up to make good the ox-' ponditure of nine months or so ago. But though it is a fact that there is a quiet period prevailing in business, if occasion arises nowadays for pleasurable jaunts and evening outings, special attractions, there is not any lack of patronage. Social evonings. special pictures, or theatrical entertainments, train trips etc., all make a call to their votaries on special occasions, and there is not any lack of patronage. Folk arcprepared to take their pleasures gladly when opportunity offers in any novel or attractive form. But in between times, a more thrifty feeling prevails, and the frugality which is practiced in so general a way produces that state of quiet Which accounts for the dullness in business traders are complaining of. To that extent then, the state of affairs is a passing phase and the time should he close at hand now when matters of business will flow more regularly in a normal way. Tile season of the year is maturing for the annual relaxation and the general change will come to pass, and in the reviving times the period of quiet now a matter of complaint will pass into the back ground of memory.