According to the latest reports from various cuontry places in Victoria and the Riverina, a return to better times is everywhere indicated. Unemployment is definitely decreasing, sustenance payments vanishing, and a spirit of renewed hope is abroad.

Hope is abroad in the land once more,
   Here 'mid the wealth of the land,
Here where the nation garners its store
Of worth-while treasure, as ever before,
   From Nature's prodigal hand.
Hope, that had hidden her face a while,
Is out and abroad with a gay, glad smile.
 
Cities must perish when broad lands fall,
   Kingdoms shall be undone;
And all man's cunning may not avail
When strong hands slacken and stout hearts quail,
   Out in the wind and sun,
Out in the silences where men toil,
Seeking thse first gifts, sprung from the soil.
 
Too fast have we hastened on untried wings
   To goals of a dubious worth;
Too far have we wandered from simpler thngs,
Scorning the gifts that a strong faith brings
   Up from our generous earth.
We are of the earth, and the earth alone
Shall be our cradle for aeons unknown.
 
But Hope is abroad in the land once more,
   Hope for the simple and strong;
And the boon of lanor, as ever before,
Gives heart to a land, too prone to pore
   O'er the woes of a world gone wrong,
And they turn to the one clear truth worth while;
Cities shall prosper when broad lands smile. 

"Den"
Herald, 19 July 1933, p6