PATUMAHOE.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 710, 28 February 1922, Page 7

PATUMAHOE.

(Ccninued from last week).

Captain Colbeck’s address dealt wlkh the cost of production, coat or getting produce ic market, and witii taxation. Captain Colbeck showed Chat now the produce of industries that were organised (such as the coa‘, timber, ion etc. ir.dus.ios} were bringing a p- ice above the con: of production, nut he products of the primary in dusir’es (sued as meat, wool, cotton, rubber, butter, etc.) were non ugnn-. and the value being got lor them now was below the cost of production. There must, deciaied the Speaker, be parity cf exchange, li.e highest cost cf living was. >uueed bv CaWain Ccibeck entirely tv the high labour cha.gos (price of coal, o: timber, of .icn and ironwork, chipping freights, ccs’i of vj.re and other materia: for irr.a development), and dr .declared c-mphaticaliy that ‘lnbev r charges nit’s; conic down; for rhe wages bo be paid tc Labour, in industry. determined the p« ice to be psjid for the products of that industry (where that Inruvtry was organised), arid, from the view point of the man on the land, where he had to pay more for lire implemerf.s and materia! he uses ii; the development of his farm, his cost of production is increased, which means that if the price he gets for his n; ©ducts is to exceed cost of production, either wages must come down or the price he 5s to receive for his products (butter, or cheese, or meat, or wool, or fruih; or cotton, or rubber, etc.,) as the case may be, must go up. But tiffs latter is determined by what he has no control of. ‘'The law of demand and supply,” he could, if organise/; 1 ,, regulate the supply, but not control the operation of the law. Hence the necessity, if the fanners is to win through, of a reduction in labour charges. Taking one example, the shipping freights (which are determined by labour charges—“working expenses,” on New Zealand wool, the half-penny .a lb, reduction secured last year by Mr Poison meant a saving on this one item alone in the marketing' expenses to the farmer (wool farmer) of over £1,000,0/0.. And so ah along the line—the reduction in labour charges will mean a Saving in costs of production and of marketing, and will enable the farmers to win clear/ in spits of the looming danger of excess of supply over demand (and so of reduced returns) on the world’s markets. Moreover, from the point of view of the woiKer, these reduced labour rates will be counterbalanced by the excess of supply over .demand, bringing down the cost of living. Dealing with taxation, Captain Coibeck said thAt the weight of taxation alone by this country was due entirely to labour charges. Last year the Railways anl Post Office Depaikmeiffs of New Zealand did not even pay their way, let alone pay for the interest on the capital sunk in them, whichji of course, became an extra charge upon the gdneral taxpayer.. He stated that one cause of this had been a spending mania Ghat had seized the Government (as well as individuals) and which could bd checked only by a strong enough public opinion, informed by facts.

Another cause was the absence^ of economy of labour in the Civil Service, the Government, from faulty philanthropic motives, retaining in their positions the employees (girls, women and old men) who were employed as substitutes for Che members of the Civil Service who went on military service during the war, while reinstating these men (who, of course,, from every point of view were entitled to reinstatement) on their return from service with the colours. This resulted in the same amount of work being in the hands of many more empioyees than was omy and concentration of effort, and the wastage being borne by the general taxpayer and in form of heavier burdens and taxation.

The farmers, organised, would provide an effective check on this, for an organised farming community throughout Now- Zealand would provide a mort powerful public opinion than any other..