The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1929. A BUSIER ENGLAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 May 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1929. A BUSIER ENGLAND.

So much lias been heard about decadent Britain and unemployment that I'olk are inclined to think the Old Country must be going downhill. Such is, happily, not the case. Looking through recent Home files there are pleasing records of an England busier than ever, and more productive. 'J he London “Daily Mail,” for instance, remarks that motorists during the Easter holidays had their eyes opened upon a new England. The spread ol industry to the southern counties, which was lilrst observed by stat.sticians sonne live years ago. has by now become marked enough for o< mmon ohsorva

tion Old familiar places have suddenly become strange to tourists, and roads lunely but a year or two ago are now lined with the workshops of a new industrial age. There are already 3J,000 factories in Greater London, and an average of at least one a week is being bailt in the outer suburbs. The change is most rapid to the west of London Places in Middlesex that a few years ago were small .country towns are now industrial centres. Wembley, Greenford, Hayes, Siougli—people wlm knew them a lew years ago as little more than rural solitudes discovered them this Easter covered with factories. Farther from London the process is going on with constantly accelerating speed. There is hardly a p.ace on the Portsmouth 'Pond which is now without an important industry. Brooklnnds, Wevhriclge, Woking, < oi/hani—all have their new factories. Pound Portsmouth, Brighton, and Hover on the s.-utli coast they are rising. Yeovil in the west is now the home of many industries, and Oxford, St. Albans. Bedford, and Edmonton are other towns transformed by the factory builder. These towns and villages are typical of many others. What is now clear, to everybody is the concrete proof of two great changes that are taking place in the face of industrial England—the transfer of industry generally from north to south, and its desire to escape from the o'd crowded imanufacfcuiring [cities to healthier conditions and cheaper sites. Yew sources of power in petrol and electricity are reversing the process of a hundred years ago; instead of crowding to the cities and towns near coalfields Hie pop?i.lnl ion is once more migrating to the countryside. The movement of industry smith is clearly shown in recent official statistics.. In live years the number of insured workers in Greater L iidon and in the south-western counties has increased by 10 per cent, in the smith Midlands by 7 per cent., and in the south-east-ern counties l>v more* than 18 per cent. The increase in north-western and north-eastern England during the same period has been only 3.J per cent.; in Scotland 1 per cent., and in Wales there has been a decrease. Unemployment in the new industrial centres of the south is decreasing rapidly compared with the northern countries and with Wales; indeed, it is almost unknown in some of the new areas. London records only 5 per cent, of unemployed, Oxford 2 pry cent, and .Slough hut 1 per cent. A line drawn roughly from the Wash to the Bristol Channel divides the* new industrial England from the old—roughly ho-

cause Leice.V or. with its artificial silk trade, and Coventry, with its motor factories, must he included for this nnr'ose in the woirressing eouUiern division. Happily the new industrialist is not blind In b-'Hitv. The new factories are ra.relv hideous, and, since fall chimneys am], <mnpl buddings are no humor •■v.”' 'h!e " ° eo""t reside is not scarred as .->f old. Indeed. most of the v\r’ sbo’->= o< the new age are admirable - designed to blend with tlieir surroundings. All Ill's indicates that at heart flieal Britain

stands as she a.ways did a tower of industrial s.retr.Ui, ami always a country of greater promise. Me the election result what il may, England is a great c untry that the politicians cannot mar, and is sun* to progress to its greater ties iny because of the wi.h and wisdom of its people as a na. ioii.