Cjje (%vmiick PUBLIbUWD iJAILi. LEVIN. WLD.Nh.SJJAV. bJvPI. IJ. I'Jio.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 September 1915, Page 2

Cjje (%vmiick PUBLIbUWD iJAILi. LEVIN. WLD.Nh.SJJAV. bJvPI. IJ. I'Jio.

The comparative slump in the uhea,. anl milling markets m .\en Zealand and Australia Jo oil re 10 cause severe losses lo tsomo merchant speculalois; lor, by present appearances, liie ueclinc in value's wiil become accentuated. Ji the Mas»ey Adminisiiation (twelve months ago) had laced its duly iinliiuchingly. and had stood resolutely to its regulations that nxed a inaxiinuni price for wlicat. tlie inevitable disorganisation oi trade and the imminent opoilaiiou ol agriculturists' markets would have been avoided. The •"bulling'' u l tiie wheat market gave great gams to the speculators, and tlio honest unlalcuiating farmers alike; but the aileimath lor the speculators js likely 10 be one oi weeds ol regret. The --'xorbitanl price.-, charged lor wheat, and it-4 by-products during the last twelvejuoutlis have rained ihe prices 01. all other cereals to Mich an extent 'hat •poultry-keepers nave been lorced to diminish their Hock by one-hall' to two j thirds; till to-day the uoiinn'iller is de-j prived ol the greater part oi his whilom i market for pollard and until, and those j products are being sold at lower rates to-day than those that were ruling beloiv the bogus shortage in wheat was alleged. .Figures were tjuoted to .Parliament recently to show that wheat j never really was iu short supply diir-i ing IUII or 191-j. and a tacit a<Jinitial oi tliiis truth was made by the. Premier lroiu his heat on the iioiit ■ benches, yet still a plea for maintenance of abnormality in selling prices | was made by an ex-Uoveriuiicnt whip, ] and -woeful pictures drawn oi the evil tha.fc would accrue to Ashbur-J ton and less important parts of .New' Zealand, if agriculturists were forced to teell wheat at us per bushel. The blatant incapacity oi' kucli politicians as Mr iNosAvorthy, M.P., to weigh corj'ectly any problem that properly solved would hit adversely any part oi the farming community is an affliction tliat the political life of Sew Zealand must bear while politicians of such calibre can appeal suoccssi'nlly to the judgment oi' the greatest numbers of fanuorc. Vet what is t-ho actual position to-dajP Let the small farmers around Sliaunon, J>evin ; and Otaki attest!. Are the poultry-lnrniprK or the pijj-farniorK any better oil' than thev were twelve months ago J , No; they have been bled financially to make prolit.s for various and numerous "farmers of the farmcM." whom the yearlong arm of retribution already is striking. But their los*> will he the loss of unearned gains, whereas the agriculturist of the South loses for at least a year or two the consuming power that helped to maintain for him tlio reasonably-profitable market" rate for wheat and its "offals." Which, then, had been the belter ■condition of affairs i'jor tlio sectional. as well as for the public good? We ask our local fanner friends to judge. No one but a peivson of incurable bias can argue now that the maintenance of an unrestricted market for grain was in New Zealand's Dost interests. Normal times have normal ways, but the opportunities for exploitation that war conditions give call for severe restriction.