N.Z. STILL POPULAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 976, 20 May 1930, Page 14

N.Z. STILL POPULAR

NAME STANDS HIGH IN ENGLAND MR. H. T. MERRITT RETURNS “New Zealand is still in high favour in England, ” said Mr. H. T. Merritt, president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, on his return to Auckland by the Maunganui this morning. Mr. Merritt left New Zealand on January 15 last and returned this morning with his son, who has been completing his education in England and France. SINCE his last visit to England in 1927, Mr. Merritt has noticed a change for the worse in unemployment. The figures were much higher and he considered that this was largely due to the extension of the benefits under the unemployment scheme. Applicants for relief formerly had to show that they were earnestly seeking work, but now this was not required. He thought that the abolition of that requirement was merely encouraging malingering. The burden of taxation on English industry was also most depressing and he saw no immediate prospect of any relief. Personally, he thought the future of New Zealand was as full of promise as ever, and that any food-producing country would win out in the end. Countries the world over had all speeded up the production of manufactured articles and there were more sellers than buyers for the goods. It suggested to him that the extension of industrial enterprise did not hold the same inducement as in the past. IMPERIALISTIC NOTE While at Home he observed that the Empire Free Trade movement as sponsored by Lords Beaverbrook and Rothermere had attracted considerable attention, but he had not met anybody who had been able to suggest how the scheme should be carried out. As an ideal, the movement was beyond criticism, but as to the ways and means of carrying it out he had not heard anything definite. At the same time the movement had certainly shown that England was developing a greater spirit of Imperialism. Mr. F. E. Merritt, who returned with his father after ten years abroad, will enter the business of H. T. Merritt, Ltd. Mr. Merritt, Jun., spent six yeans at school in England, two years in France, and two years gaining business experience in London.