Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1911. WHAT'S WRONG WITH MASTERTON?

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10191, 18 March 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1911. WHAT'S WRONG WITH MASTERTON?

This is a question wlrich our local contemporary asks in a.. sorrowful sort of way. "What's wrong with Masterton?" During the past twelve months several business places have been closed. That is true. It is also true, as our contemporary points out, that "three large hotel buildings are standing empty and useless." Tins latter fact seems to concern our friendl very much', and, in his pessimism, he conj venieritly omits to mention that .twelve months ago "four" large hotel buildings were empty and useless. The evening paper does not actually say so, but it leaves it to be inferred that the depression amongst a certain class* of businesses which has been experienced during the last twelve months is due entirely to No-license. It even goes so far as to ask Mr H. D. Bedford to offer an explanation of a position which it should itself, if t it had the courage and ability, have been prepared to explain. Most.people will be at a loss to know what Mr Bedford! has to do with the matter, anyhow.- -And.a great ■< many more will be astonished r at a public; journal attempting, to decry a township the potentialities of which were never more manifest than at . the present moment. Admitting, for

the purposes of argument, that the carrying of No-license has resulted in a diminishing of the cash spent by visitors to the town, no man in Ids- sane senses would dream of attributing the closing down of fourteen business places, to this fact alone. What, then, has been the primary cause of the dullness in trade? The answer is simple. Masterton is a township which, being dependent almost entirely upon the products of the soil, and being without industries, has made slow but steady progress. Four or five years ago a lot of loan money was being expended in and around uiie town, and advantage was taken of this fact to boom the place. Land was sold at fictitious prices; houses and business premises were erected out of sheer speculation; business men rushed the place in the hope that they would share in me division of the spoil. And, when the loan money was spent, and the spending power of the settlers was reduced by the fall in the prices of primary prod-, ucts, the inevitable happened. Working men and others, finding no occupation, began to leave the town, and the smaller businesses, which had been called into existence by the boom alone, .began to feel the pinch. ; The fact is that Masterton for several years past has been over-shopp-ed. At the present Woment there are fully one-third more business places in the'town than there were ten years ago,"■■Masterton,.'.however, has nothing to fear.. -In', spite of. the croaking of its future is assured. % Even now, enquiries showthat a more confidential ton© exists than has been the case for months past. The opening of the freezing works at Waingawa has given a filip to trade, and the high prices ruling last year for produce will increase the spending power of the settlers. All that we require is a little more public enterprise—a little more confidence in ourselves, and the closer settlement of the land in' the*} neighbourhood of the town I ".' There is' no more wrong with Nolicense Masterton at the present time than there is with License Wellington. This township, however, as the centre of a resourceful district, wilt recover more quickly than the city, provided that the croakers give it a chance.