8.—6

XXXII

In last year's Financial Statement I reminded my fellow-citizens that there was no royal road to prosperity. There is only one way to get there, and that is by work: by each individual and each section of the community putting forth all the energy they possess, and using all the talents with which they have been endowed. Whether my advice reached many of them or not, the fact remains that during the last twelve months the country has been a hive of industry, and the results as shown by the greatly improved position of both public and private finance are exceedir gly creditable to all concerned, and must be looked upon with much satisfaction by the whole population of the Dominion. There is a proverb which says that a house divided against itself cannot stand. I follow that up by saying a country divided against itself cannot prosper. We may have our differences of opinion, but where the country's interests are concerned its citizens should pull together, and aim at making it what nature intended it to be—one of the happiest and most prosperous countries of the British Empire.