WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 30 December 1921, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE CLOSING YEAR. ANXIOUS TIMES AHEAD. SI'F.CIAI, TO OC.UtniAN. WELLINGTON, Dec. 27 The year is closing with no very bright prospects before any section o! the community. The producers, with the exception of the wheat growers, are threatened with a period of low prices; the business men ale faced hv difficult financial problems, concerning Loth themselves and their customers, and the workeis are menaced by a slackened demand for the services they have to sell. The whole community, in short, is confronted by the adverse operation of certain economic laws which nie now taking toll tor the violence done t-hciu during the war and the early days ol peace. The producers probably are in the hardest plight of all. The Government has been buoying tlism up with predictions of an early recovery ol prices, a lowering of shipping charges and a hotter system of marketing. Rut all these things still are mostly in the air. The improvement in the price of wool is more than rounlor-balaneed by the sharp decline in the price of Imtter and the continued stagnation in the meat market. At the moment, at an.v rate, the lot of the nrodiieer is not a happy one. A DIFFICULT SITUATION.

Business men of all degrees arc suffering from the decreased earning power of the producers, many of them severely. While Mr Massey has been preaching the gospel of optimism, hard work and economy, companies, firms and individuals have been bearing on tlieii sorely taxed shoulders most ol the burdens ol tile producers, whom neither the Gmerinneiil nor lie hanks hair been able to assist with anything more sustaining than sage advice and kindly wishes. With big declines in land values and in stock values the business men have been oenipelled to take hold ol propositions they would not have touched in normal times. Vi hat will he the outcome of all this it is impossible to sav. There are plenty of people arguing that high land values are at the bottom of the whole trouble and that everything will he well with the community when they are reduced to a reasonable level. Rut the process ■■ r reduction, on the scale suggested by many of these reformers, would involve in most cases the extinction of the interests of the present owners and a search for a new set of producers. A REVOLUTIONARY I’ROI’OKAL. Thi' alternative to this drastic proceeding suggested to.the Government by a deputation, which described itself as representative, was that land values should he substantially leduced in the interests of the present holders and that the State and the mortgagees should bear the cost of the ojreration. This, of ionise, would mean repudiation ol a kind that public opinion would not tolerate nor -Mr Massey approve. The bare suggestion, however, gives some idea of the situation the business men are handling. As a mutter oi lacl, in many cases they already have placed themselves in the position of bearing all the risk of "carrying on” in accordance with the Prime Minister’s appeal. The interest of hundreds ol producers in their farms has been practically extinguished by the drop ill values. They are remaining on their !:.ridings n> v i representatives of the mortgagees, ami id do the mortgagees justice, they aie remaining, in most instances, on conditiims that are by no means illiberal. Rut talk ut repudiation, which challenges Ihe very basis ut financial and cmiiiereial morality, is wholly reprehensible. THE WORKERS' CASE. Amidst all this bother and confusion it is extremely difficult to ascertain exactly how the workers’ ease stands. That the men who toiled with their hands fared passably well during tinwar. nil one acquainted with l lie fuels can honestly deny. Tlieii wages wenhigh and their conditions entirely tolerable, while the sendee demanded from them was not exacting. I he;, should have no grievance against any , -eei ion of the community on these scores. Rut the position has changed vc: . mueii since the days when bud money and employment were abundant m; 1 the value of s.rvice was not enre--1 111!V counted. Producers and business men have bail to look very elos. l.v into their affairs ami many of them have d : , meted that llie cu.m <*l silt'll services as they receive is more than tie serines are wmlli and more than they can alfoid. There must be a :e-adjust-ment somewhere. Either there iiium lie belter services or lower wages. Em,,l,,vers, almost without exception, would prefer the former, hut'll is lor ri.c workers 10 choose. On ilieii de- , dun will depend groat Iv tlm speed ill, which mn mill ei mlit i. n- arc (>• st..(•!.