Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star TUESDAY, SEPT. 21st, 1920. CONTROLLING PRICES AND EXPORT.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star TUESDAY, SEPT. 21st, 1920. CONTROLLING PRICES AND EXPORT.

Much is being heard now about controlling prices as a means to steady the charges for commodities. The . retail price to which butter will soar will create a very general discussion rroun- 1 every family table, and in ,every pi acl where adults meet together. The Government during the war period very properly exercised control in prices and restricted export as it was thought best, not so much in the interests of the people as in the interests of the nation as a whole. But the war is past and the markets of the world are open to trade, and there are now no dire circumstances why export ■should be restricted. In the ordinary way the accepted rules of comn)erce — supply and demand—should reign again hut the Government are not moving in this free trade, groove just yet. They are still controlling prices, and in some instances are checking exports. Butter is a commodity in >use by every family in the land. It is a very essential food supply, and during the war period the Government so acted as to enable the Dominion to be well supplied with butter, at an advanced rate certainly, but at a price more reasonable than our neighbours paid in Australia or our countrymen are paying in Britain.' As a writer'on behalf of the .dairymen recently put it. “Butter is the lowest price commodity 'on the market to-day, compared with other things. Before the war factory, butter was Is 6d retail ; up til! now it has been Is Bd. What other product has only risen 2d during the seasons of inflater prices? It is time the dairyman had his day and received a decent return for his labour and enterprise. For dairying is hard work, and I know in many cases those who grumble about the price of butter would he the last to take up dairying. Those who are fortunate enough to havp the milking machines certainly have their |abouy minimised to a great extent, but, unfortunately, mapv eanpot afford the machines, although it is to be hoped the promised 2s 6d jvjll help them largely towards getting them.’’ The butter man wants free trade with his commodity and looking to the price he is pacing for his land, stock and implements, an enhanced price is surely his portion. That price it must be remembered cannot last. Europe, disrupted as it is in some portions, is rapidly, getting back to normal in the chief dairying centres of the west. When Russia settles down to peaceful pursuits and her produce agaip enters the markets of the world, there will be a great slump in prices, gut that it not now, gepling with the present jt appears inevitable that the price of butter should go up, and if wijj go up only because butter will have a free market. Conceding that, and looking to the favoring eye the Premier has on the wool market for the wool producer, we are wondering what is to be done for the sawmiller. There is still the embargo on his export. This it will be said is because of the restricted supplies in New Zealand, but the supplies are restricted only be-, cause of the Jack of transport facilities to get the timber to where it is required. And if the supply is so short, why BO action in reafforestation? As Mr Massey said, you cannot grow trees by Act of Parliament, but equally as you cannot get the growth witliout the plantation. In the meantime the present generation is being penalised, and no place more than the West Coast, which has the natural product and is not allowed to send it away, There is free trade for one and not for all. It is government for the favoured classes, and the West Coasters appear to be in another class when timber is concerned. __ j