REGULATION OF PRICES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2907, 20 October 1916, Page 5

REGULATION OF PRICES

STATE INTERFERENCE IN AUSTRALIA. .

"In. times of fiaancial stress it is nothing short of scandalous," remarks the "Australasian," "that a number of now and useless boards should ho .created in Australia to regulate prices. The cost of -.Government, apart from the' war, i s increasing year by year, and, nevertheless, tbo Federal Government chooses to instal price-fixing boards in all the States; The men in charge are drawing comfortable salaries, but nothing can be found for thorn to do. Every attempt to deal with prices- since the war commenced has beon a failure. The State Government attempted it in tbe earlier stages, but was wise enough to abandon it. ; The Federal Ministry has not been free to follow experience, or it, too, would have admitted that no advantage whatever has come from tbe price-fixing attempts/ Indeed, in the case of the-butter industry, it is undoubted that the full extent of the mischief which Mr. Tudor and Senator Russell have done between them has not yet been fully realised. The dairying industry is one from which long hours and hard work are inseparable.. Mon both, and have taken the risks of the seasons to build up an export trade which represented some millions of pounds annually to Australia. The essence of that trado is tjiat tho factories should be able to make arrangements for their export markets in advance. But with the precedent established by Mr. Tudor, a. future Minister may interpose and prohibit exports of butter at any time. No export business could be carried on under such conditions, and it is not to be wondered at that many dairymen are going out of the industry. Tho sugar business in Queensland has been a constant subject for meddling by politicians ever since federation. One set of authorities has fixed the price at which farmers must sell, another authority Jias fixed a rate of wages which farmers must' pay. Between them they have left nothing on which the-farmer may lire. It is positively, offensive to public feeling that. the. war should b e used to advance party aims. The fixing of the price of bread as a "war precaution" when Australia had an overflowing: harvest was a gross perversion of power given for war purposes. It is time that the Ministry frankly admitted that these nuesHonp were beyond their legitimate interference."