FROM THE OPPOSITION LEADER.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 321, 31 December 1936, Page 4

FROM THE OPPOSITION LEADER.

Press Association —Copyright. Invercargill, Last Night. The following new year message has been issued by the leader of the Opposition, Mr. Adam Hamilton: I send to all my best wishes for I the new year. New Year’s Day is I the day on which most of us make a ' rough calculation whether we have | slipped back or moved forward. This j personal stocktaking is valuable, so |is national stocktaking. As they read their newspapers and listen to j their radio over the holiday season, ! all thinking New Zealanders must ' have felt thankful to realise that the British Empire is a good place to live | in and New Zealand as good a place as any on the face of the globe. Today we think and talk about our troubles, but should we net count out blessings and be thankful that our lot is cast in such a pleasant country. To-day we learn of the great prosperity in the Mother Country that is reflected in all the overseas Dominions. When the people in Great Britain are well off, so are we. Our prosperity is wrapped up very largely with prosperity at Home. When j the export -figures for the full y6ar iof 1936 are available they will in all j probability show the greatest value of

PERSONAL AND NATIONAL STOCKTAKINGS.

experts for any year in our history. This great increase is reflecting itsfelf in the real spending power of the community.

We begin the new year full of optimism and hope. It seems that we are well on the way to a boom year. Let us hope and pray that this prosperity is not brought about by the thought of war. While we came through depression without impairing our national economy, I trust that we will as successfully weather this spending period. Though hoarding is a vice, thrift is a virtue. The Savings Bank returns show that while New Zealanders are spending freely, they are also prudently saving. ■ When we read of Spain ante of China, we New Zealanders have cause to give thanks to those who have gone before us —those who have made possible our high standards of living and of education, who have given us our religious, political and economic freedom. These are all very desirable things which during the year to come we must preserve and practice, and if possible strengthen. Let us hold fast to that which is good. This is the call to all young men and women to be worthy of their British heritage.