The Dominion FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1916. LOOKING AHEAD

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2901, 13 October 1916, Page 4

The Dominion FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1916. LOOKING AHEAD

If may appear to many people that the Acting Minister of Finance in urging economy and thrift while at the same time quoting figures to show the remarkable buoyancy of the State revenue displayed undue timidity. Here we have an increase of some £800,000 in revenue, for the: first six months of the financial year;, when compared with the cor> responding period of 1915; prices 'for,'bur produco are booming; the bank returns afford evidence of exceptional prosperity throughout the Dominion, and yet Me. Myers preaches cautilon and thrift, and urges the need for every citizen to work harder to increase production. In spite of apparent inconsistency the Minister's attitude is sound and his advice timely. It is well that we should not permit our present exceptional prosperity to blind us to the obligations which the war has placed upon our shoulders. To-day the financial burden of the war is hardly felt at all in New Zealand. Here a business has been closed down: there another has been crippled, but generally speaking the war has benefited'us in practically all branches of trado and industry. Ono result of this has been that in spite of. the heavy war expenditure incurred, and the necessity for heavy 'increases in taxation to meet the added interest and other pharges that have piled up, the bulk of those who find this money have experienced no material hardship. This prosperity which we are enjoying, and which enables us to meet our immediate engagements with such ease, is due entirely to the prices which we are receiving for our primary pro-' t ducts in tho markets of the. world.. The product of the land, whether it he in the form of mutton, or wool, or butter, or cheese, is what we havo to depend on to make ends meet, and the more wo can produce and send abroad,_ and tho higher tho prices we receive for it, tho better the outlook for all classes in the Dominion. It is a fallacy to believe that the farmer, the man on the land, is tho only person who bene'fits from increased production and high prices for our products abroad. There are many people who talk as though the good times being enjoyed by the sheep-raiser and the dairy farmer were gained at the expense of tho rest of the community, whereas the fact is that all share in tho prosperity which springs from the labour and toil of the primary, producers. If this were not the case, how comes it that with production poor and prices in the markets of the world low, we havo depression and unemployment throughout the Dominion, whereas with production good and prices high we have prosperous conditions all round? It is necessary, therefore, in viewing tho,present situation, to recognise our dependence on the farming community and our interest in its welfare. On

the industry and skill of the man on the land, and on his good fortune in placing his products In the markets of _ the world, will depend in the main our ability to meet with ease, or only by pinching and hardship, the obligations to which the Minister of Finance very properly directs attention. The obvious thing to do iri the circumstances is to encourage the primary producer in every possible way to increase his production and expand the country's exports; and especially to do this at the present time, when the markets abroad afford so favourable an opportunity for securing high pricßS. Now is the chance to accumulate those reserves upon which we may have to rely ih the years to come to tide us over the liabilities which tho war has imposed. The farmer should be encouraged to place as much as possible, of the profits ho is making to-day back into the land in the way of improvements, better stock, and higher cultivation, so that we may look forward to increased production and larger exports. It is not encouraging him to threaten him with artificially restricted prices and export embargoes, which not only hit unfairly at his pockets, but unsettle and Beh him wondering where and when the nest blow is going to fall.