The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1932. WHEN THE DEPRESSION ENDS.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 January 1932, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1932. WHEN THE DEPRESSION ENDS.

It was remarked by Professor Macmillan Broun in his address at the opening of the session of the New Zealand University Senate recently, says die Otago Times, that the most remarkable feature of the present depression is its universality. No disaster occurs in any country that is .vilhout its effect elsewhere. A bought ill Australia, a flood in China, riots on u»e Continent, the failure of the cotton crop, a mine explosion, even die collapse of a Stock Exchange boom n .the United States—all have an in- • .tienee that extends throughout the ■ A'orld. But the causes of the depression that is now exercising the minds of statesmen, financiers, and economists everywhere, and that has brought about a general reduction of purchasing power, lie deeper and are of wider range than those to which most of the depressions of the pant can be traced, It is partly for this reason that- we repeatedly hear the. .present crisis described as the most serious in history, It is by no means certain that it is the worst the world has Aeen. PTofespor Humfrey Mjitchell, of M'Master' University, Canada, is one of those who do not accept the view that more severe depressions have not been suffered in tlie past. It is, in his opinion, only because to-day we think in millions where our forefathers thought in thousands that we consider the present depression to be tlie worst in history. “Let us,” he says, “open our history books and read the story of the the great crisis known as the South Sea. Bubble, which brought England to the very verge of ruin so long ago as 1720. Let us read of the great crisis in England in 1825, that closed scores of banks and ruined thousands. The great crisis of 1837 in the United States, the collapse of the railway boom of 1857., and the world-wide depressions of 1873 and 1893 were proportionately more severe and disastrous than what we have suffered from of late.” And out of each crisis, he ad elk, the world emerged stronger and richer and more prosperous than before. Professor Stephen Leacock is another Canadian economist who surveys the stricken world with the eye of an optimist. National prosperity 'in" the long run, he 1 writes, does not depend on stock exchanges and margins andl market prices. “National wealth is based on the land, the resources and the character and the temper of the people.” Luckily for tlie Canadians, as far as their economic basis goes, they are a people, Professor Leacock says,” with a vast heritage, enormous assets, boundless natural wealth, most of it still intact and untouched, New Zealand, like Canada, possesses great national resources and possesses also a people that has tfie industry and the intelligence and the grit to develop these resources to advantage. And when the depression has cured itself, as depressions, Professor Leacock says, have a way of doing, New Zealand may enter once again into the full enjoyment of the goodly heritage with which she, is blessed.