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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 296, 7 May 1913, Page 4

A PEEP AT AMERICA. Wanganui some time ago sent' three of its citizens to represent it at the International! Congress' of ,the Chambers of ' Commerce, held '.in America. It was a unique conference, forty-seven nations being represented and twenty languages spoken} Probably it was the most important meeting of commercial men ever held. > The Wanganui delegates have just returned, and they gave some of their experiences before the local Chamber of Commerce on Saturday evening. Mr. A. Burnett stated that, much interest was taken in New Zealand by, the American people. It was, he said, hard to conceive the impression made by the magic'words "New Zealand" adorning the medals worn by the New Zealand delegates. In the streets, tramcars and ships, -the travellers were besieged with questions, which invariably related to politics. • The Americans wanted to know what was the influence of progressive legislation in this country. The speaker informed his questioners that the Dominion had prospered under it, and recommended that the Americans could not do better. Mr. Burnett explained that the constitution of the United States did not permit of wluit could be made law here. There was no land tax, no Acquisition Bill, and no Advances to.Settlera Act. Mr. Lcrl Bassett, another of the delegates, remarked that he entered America with a .biassed opinion of its people, but he came away with quite a different conception of them. He had an idea before lie knew them that they were veritable dollarhunters, but after his association with them he acknowledged that they wore men of a high calibre, who took a great pride in their country and its development. He was particularly struck with the provision made for and the expectation of development in the towns. Finn foundations were built, and everything in expectation of something larger and better in the future was planned. No doubt, proceeded the speaker, Wanganui was a fine' place, and had much to commend it as a town, but on going away and using his observation, and coming back to his town, he viewed it f:or.'. a

lather different aspect than formerly. Judging from what he had seen, Mr. Bassett held that Wanganui, for its size, was wasting thousands of pounds in administration. If the borough were administered by one outside individual, it would be found that that administrator would employ engineers and others who would be conversant with modern ideas and modern equipment. It would pay the borough of Wanganui hands down, Mr. Bassett averred, to give its engineer a substantial cheque and send him away | to learn modern road-making, modern lighting, and. make himself acquainted with modern equipment. In ten or fifteen years, he said, the foundations of Wanganui would have to be uprooted, for they would not be able to stand the development of the modern city which Wanganui promises to become. The American commercial men, Mr. Bassett continued, were men of ait-round education, not like many men in England, who had a one-sided education. The educational development of the school children in America was watched very carefully by the citizens, and vehicles were provided to collect them daily and convey them to school. Here children were taught, among other things, town-plan-ning, and were show>i what their future towns would be like. Asked why this was done, a prominent American assured the speaker that those children were to be the future administrators of these plans. This, he considered, was a wise procedure. There was also a civic keenness in connection with industries. Sites were given for factories of promising industries, and in Boston young industries were financed. It would be a good thing, Mr. Bassett held, if the citizens of Wanganui had more pride and confidence in their town than they have. He 'said that the fact that Wanganui had three delegates, New Zealand seven and Australia one, gave the impression that New Zealand was a place, and Wanganui was the capital. The delegates were careful, however, not to inform their enquirers the population of the town. One of the subjects considered by the Commercial Congress was that of the cost or living. Professor Irving Fisher, of Yale University, who insisted upon the difficulty of accounting for the continual rise in the price of the necessaries of life, and sug- ■ gested as a remedy the standardising of the value of the gold dollar—not by arbitrary act of the Legislature, but by giving a price for what he terms the bullion dollar, having a definite relation to the values of commodities at the time of purchase. Iri other words, giving a less price for the gold necessary to make a dollar than the purchasing price of, the durifency dollar. This, he asserted, would tend to make the purchasing power of a dollar more constant and thus remedy to a certain extent the continual upraising of values. Other speakers insisted that the cast of living was mainly .brought, about by the increased luxuriousnesslof the present day; but, generally'speaking, the conference was of the opinion that it would be wise to advocate that the questions should be referred to the decision of an International Conference. Wanganui is, an enterprising place, or it would not have occurred to its people to send representatives to the conference. That it has been a good investment is manifest from the. nature of the reports made by the delegates. If the visit of the representatives but results in sending its engineer to America and elsewhere to pick up the latest wrinkles in the conduct of its several activities Wanganui's experiment will have been more.than justified.