CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 211, 6 March 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

ADVANCES IX ELECTS YEAR. Tho Hon. James Allen, in the endc.ivor to give his charge greater weight, says the money was advanced in election year. It was a year oi groat financial stringency. The demands upon the Department were abnormal, settlers had been relying upon the State for these loans in their moment of difficulty, and Sir Joseph Ward honorably saw them through their emergency. And for this he is blamed now by the high priest of "Reform" finance. But our readers will remember that following immediately upon the advent of the "Reform" Government there was a year of even greater financial stringency. Settlers and workers appealed to the State-lend-ing departments in anxious hope which quickly turned to gloomy despair when the advances upon which they had been counting were flatly refused. There was a change in policy as well as in control. Sir Joseph Ward was no longer in charge, sympathetic with the settlers and prepared to tide them over their troubles, and they were compelled to go out into the open market and hind themselves for lengthy periods to the payment of excessive rates of interest. When these loans were refused, the stereotyped answer was given that there was no money available, but as a matter of fact returns subsequently laid before the House showed that at that very moment £200,000 of tho money that had been borrowed to provide State advances was being used for the ordinary purposes of government. If Sir Joseph Ward exceeded the limit in one year, in order to relieve the demands created by an unexpected financial stringency, his Tory successors took advantage of a financial stringency in another year to refuse advances of money already in the Department, having been raised for lending purposes, and thus drove borrowers out into the open market where they were compelled to pay heavily for their accommodation —Wellington Times. THE MEN WHO WIN. Watt Mason has written:—Most of the big strong men you know were just plain hoys in the long ago; nine, I estimate, out of ten, were poor as any of you hoys, then. They had their joys and they had their woes, they stole their melons and stubbed their toes; they had their faults, as I must «onfess, but one of them never was laziness. Whatever they did they did with zest; and when the'y found there was work at hand, they bent and labored to beat the hand. And that the secret of tho men who rise; some are not gifted, some are not wise, and some are hobbled and hadicapped far more than fellows who are now strapped. You have no chance! Well, no more had they when setting forth on the world's rough way; they made their chances and pushed along, nor stopped to argue that things are wrong. And now they're honored; their handsome girls are getting ready to marry carls, their homes are stationed in handsome grounds •pey have their yachts and ride to hounds. While you, the victim of circumstance, are still insisting you have no chance. HINTS ON ADVERTISING. The unsystematic way in which newspaper advertising is carried out by some shopkepers is commented upon by an advertising expert who addressed grocers m London the other Jay. It is generally, lie says, a safe rule to limit the advertisement at any particular time to only one class of goods or one special line, although when dealing with certain special lines on special occasions it may be advisable to list a big variety of articles. The reason for this is that the general public is simple-minded, and is confused with a multiplicity of articles. A good way to organise tho years advertisements is to have typed ont on a sheet of cardboard the months of the year, with, in a space provided after each month, the list of groceries which are generally of most demand at those periods. This card hung over the desk will aasist the shopkeeper in keeping up-to-date in his publicity, whether by advertisement or in window display I hen it is as essential to clearly indicate the prices of the various articles in one s press announcements as it is m one's window. This, says the expert, is half the battle, and fixes the attention of the housewife. Other points noted are that unnecessary adjectives exaggeration and "word-spinning" for the sake of filling space is not good business; that good arguments to be used m grocery advertising are: quality, convenience, cleanliness and prices; and lastly, that regularity of appearance of announcement, as opposed to spasmodic advertisements, pay best