"THE GOOD OLD TALES."

Horowhenua Chronicle, 12 March 1915, Page 2

"THE GOOD OLD TALES."

(To the Editor.) S"",— 'iiie par in liie Chronicle about Uie higher prices ol wheat, flour and uread 50 years ago wan not unexpected. This paragraph is like one of thu.jc heavenly bodies which appear reg ; i.arly alter iiaving described their ciicuailocutioii into the ether depths, proj.ibly also via the oilice drawers jf tlu millers' trurst. its last appearancj was during the late industrial upheaval, and before that, some seven yea is ago when we were paying £1 10b Ud lui a bag ot wheat, and eggs were lid. It is certainly comforting to know ol those high prices of 50 years ago. It makes us forget a bit the extortionate prices of the present. It acts like a merciful whiff of chlorotorm to allay the pains on our "chist" and purses. It is not stated therein that the higher prices of 50 yea its ago were largely due to "natural" causes, such as are connected with the pioneer stages, viz., lack of up-to-date transport by land and water, etc. Probably the advantages of scientific methods and more perfected seed, tools and machinery, and of settled white population, hare since reduced the cost of production quite 150 per cent; yet. prices soar to the giddy height of iiltv years ago. Nor is it whispered that the present "rises" are largely "artificial" and without justt'ficatio ,i. Prices 'generally went up quite 30 per cent before the wair. A rise due to diminished wheat area and increasing jKipulation would come on gradually in the course of years, and not hit .is in the stomach to the extent of one hundred per cent in a low months. A ([notion : "Why do Trusts articles rise, and eggs, fruit and such things ol small producers, and also wages, re"main almost normal, or sink?" I have no doubt that at least TO petcon t of the recent rises in prices go into the podsels of the profit-making middleman and of the big "cocky." May tlwso stockings-full of sovereigns lie lightly on their conscience, and may St. Peter ask no troublesome questions later. Meanwhile the Parliamentary machine is laid up for six months, for oiling. The oiling will cost the people over ten thousand pounds. As fur as the average man or woman 7s concerned. it will never earn them the cost of the lubricating oil. What I said higher up about "improved machinery'' wa.s not meant to apply to this particular piece ot .mechanism, , which, on the contrary, is all the worse tor 50 years of wear, and at present at least seem to have only enough energy left to move at a fair pace towards the scrap-heap.—l am, etc., H. LEGER.