"THE RIGHT NAIL."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10229, 4 May 1911, Page 5

"THE RIGHT NAIL."

[To TU Editor. l

Sir, — Your leaderette of to-day, under the -above heading, has given "the right nail" another necessary tap. By all means drive it home, and get your dozen or two patriotic citizens to do something practical towards the establishment of local industries, which is the most, pressing necessity of the town and district. There is wealth at your doors if it can only be materialised. Last year it was demonstrated beyond any doubt that the Maurice ville shale deposits were capable, with a small outlay of capital, of supplying the most artistic, durable and inexpensive roofing material for the whole Southern Hemisphere, but the enterprise was lacking. People sit and croak and bemoan the dullness of trade, and the depletion of population, which is the natural consequence of industrial inactivity, while such opportunities are allowed to drift. Every year New Zealand props up a flourishing French industry to the extent of many thousands of pounds for a rooSng material woefully inferior to that winch could be supplied from here at a less cost to i the user, and five or sis thousand | pounds would be sufficient to start ( that industry to coin money. Still , we croak and sit with our eyes transfixed on the shadow of an empty *beer bottle, or contemplate the pleasures of, being possessed of a full one. Never mind whether the bottles are full or empty. Get the district filled with busy people and the , shops well stocked with marketable goods, locally manufactured If possible. When that is done there will be no room for croaking.— I am, etc., " J. A. CORNELL.