GREAT IMPROVEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 September 1921, Page 11

GREAT IMPROVEMENT.

CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA. RETURNED VISITOR ON 'THE UNEMPLOYMENT ASPECT. “How are things in Australia?” “Well,” said a passenger, who arrived by the Marania recently to a Times representative, “I can speak only of Sydney and some small portion of New South Wales, but if this portion of the Commonwealth may be taken as a barometer, and if what one hears is fairly correct, it is quite safe to say that things over the other side have improved a great deal of late. When I was over there, not so very long ago, I was struck by the extraordinary number of men who were out of employment. It was obvious—painfully obvious—even to a newcomer, and Sydney people to whom I mentioned the matter said they noticed it perhaps even more than one who was not a constant resident of the city. AFTERMATH OF WAR. “Various reasons were given for thia extensive unemployment, but all of them seemed to be called by a second name that might be termed 'aftermath of war.* To-day in Sydney there is not nearly the unemployment there was then. You easily notice the difference when looking along the principal streets or passing by the places where men congregate. Gradually things are righting themselves, and men are being absorbed into industries that, in the course of time, are sure to forge ahead again. The outlook is good, and business men are facing the future very cheerfully. When one comes to think of it, Australia is such a great country that it seems strange that there should be any fear of undue depression there. A continent to maintain a few million inhabitants! What’s wrong with the order of things when any of them go short in those circumstances ? CROWDING TO THE CENTRES. “One bad feature which hits -a New Zealander is the undue congregation of population in the cities. Here we see nothing which gives us even an inkling of how people crowd into the big towns over there and forsake the country. Australians in responsible positions realise that*if they could get the people out of the cities into the country, a lot of problems would be solved. “Matters seem to be easier on the waterfront of Sydney than they used to be, and, so far as one could judge the new scheme that has been put into operation is working fairly successfully.”