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Hokitika Guardian, 12 June 1930, Page 4

Tin? general fall in the selling prices of .staple products is' naturally causing a good deal of anxiety throughout the Dominion. However it may he some consolation to realise that the decline in the prices of these commodities is only one phase of a. world-wide downward movement which is affecting all countries and all products at once in varying degrees, Snell far-reaching fluctuation's in price must he attributed lint so much to influences affecting the supply of goods as to changes modifying the demand for goods as represented by the amount of currency in circulation. The general and widely diffused character of this decline in prices accounts for the importance now attached to the relative falling-off in the annual production of gold, and file expectation that a change for the better may manifest itself shortly through the relaxation of credit restrictions by the banks and the general improvement in the international monetary situation. The time hns clearly come for international action to cope with this serious menace to the world’s industrial and commercial prosperity, and the conference convened by .Hr MacDonald at' the Guildhall within a few days should help to throw light on the whole question and to facilitate the application, of remedies. Ihe situation is essentially economic, hut though the cause may he assigned, the difficulty is going to he not in recommending a remedy, but in applying it without adding further to the general disorder. Costs of production a licet prices of commodities, and if this could he reversed whereby the lowering of prices would ca.se costs of production, we would lie well on tho way to a material improvement. An intimate review of production costs is the first step towards alleviating the general situation. Tt is not essential that wages should be attacked for that purpose, but if cheaper living could be ensued the demand for high or higher rates of pay would pass. The general problem rears its head in all quarters, and there is some consolation in the fact that the best brains in all countries are endeavouring to meet the situation.