The Stirrings of Spring

Industrial life responds to the stirrings of spring in much the same way as the emotional in man and the flowers and trees in Nature. It becomes more active, more hopeful, more enterprising—brighter in outlook, increasingly confident, and more friendly. The British spring this year saw a marked revival of trade, and the New Zealand spring upon which we have just entered brings with it better prices and more definite signs of general industrial improvement than have been experienced for many months.

Recent mails arriving in the Dominion indicate increased forward bookings of tourists for this country, a definite revival of travel from which the whole industrial life of New Zealand will benefit.

The springtime enterprise of the railways in thrusting through to get more traffic is an indication that this giant of the transport world refuses to “stay put.” When the times call for changed methods the railways respond, the measure of their adaptability being the index of their vigour and the test of their suitability to meet the needs of commerce.

All these spring-time activities are helping to bury the depression. They are making people “think o’ something different”; they are, in the words of Mulvaney, “creating a divarshun,” and bringing about a change in mental outlook that projects better times ahead.

Among the aids towards national revival will be the National Confidence Carnival Week to be held in Wellington from the 18th to the 25th November. It is a recognised principle in all human progress that a contemplation of past achievement gives the best assurance of what can be done in the future. So the Carnival, while telling dull care to vanish, will shew in the most graphic form what New Zealand's great century has accomplished, and provide a background for displaying the bright prospects of the golden years ahead.