“NO SUGGESTION OF GLOOM.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4460, 3 June 1930, Page 2

“NO SUGGESTION OF GLOOM.”

AIR . STAi dAY OR THY’S VIEW S. Christchurch. .May 31. “Although the Prime Minister’s statement discloses a position that must be faced manfully by the Government, and also by the people," Hon. A. J. Stalhvorthy, Minister of Health, said to-day, “there is no suggestion of gloom or despair. It is a new departure for a Prime Minister to take the people into his confidence at a sufficiently early time to avoid the much more difficult position that would inevil ably ensue from the opposite policy. After all, it is ordinary business practice when a job has to be done to estimate carefully its dimensions.”

“I am in complete disagreement with a statement by the Leader of the Labour Party, which characterises the Prime Minister’s statement as a dark and dismal one,” continued Air. Stallworthy. “So far from diffusing gloom through the Dominion, the Prime Minister’s statement inspired further confidence in him as leader of the Government. By frankly setting out the position and appealing to the citizens on patriotic lines he has won a very generous response from them.”

New Zealanders, Air. Stalhvorthy added, were not the sort to sit down ■and whine over difficulties. They would rather respond to the challenge to overcome obstacles with the spirit of determination and pluck that had often pulled them through quite serious crises. The Government was alive to the almost illimitable resources of this Dominion. Great developmental works were in progress from the North Cape to the Bluff. Already there was abundance of evidence that in the near future the production of our primary industries would be tremendously increased. With the improvement in values that was sure to c-ome New Zealand would again swing into an era of prosperity. In the meantime, while the unemployment position awaited a more scientific economic mobilisation of the Dominion’s affairs, the Government was doing everything possible to get through the transition period with the least possible distress in the section of the people most in need of help.