WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 9 April 1931, Page 2

WELLINGTON NEWS

SEARCH FOR OPTIMISM. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, April 7

Economists and staticians are cold blooded, that is to say they f ling to hard 'facts and do not care a scrap whether those facts make for optimism or pessimism. It is facts that count with them. In recent years we have come up against price levels and economists and statisticians have given a great deal of attention to the matter S.vstems of computation vary, some include many, and some fewer commodities, but as statisticians confine their comparisons to thenown compiled figures, the deductions may be accepted so far as any one particular authority is concerned, the (statistical correspondent of the "Financial Times” (London) makes > s computations weekly and has been doing so 'for months past. According to a recent cable message, this statistician points out that his weekly commodities price index at the end of last month showed practically no alteration since the end of January. tie says that recovery in wool prices has definitely begun "a point we have endeavoured to stress when dealing with the wool market. Wholesale prves according to this authority, have fallen less than one point during the months of February and March, Judg........ed by recent experience, this is a long) period for prices to remain .stationary, and if this stability continues, stocks will gradually pass into consumption, and that in itself will help to improve the position, ft is a well known fact that, when affairs are at their worst, is about when recovery starts in an imperceptible ' manner until it gathers strength, and then we suddenly become aware that recovery has iea >

commenced. It would be unwise to 'Jet undue, optimism take bold of us. for if we j have to give way to that, we will shirk the hundred and one things that we have to do to bring hack prosperity There is an improvement in the price level in Britain, but the effect on New Zealand is comparatively small, for it only touches wool which has recovered -the drop in values that occurred earlier this season. It has not affected butter, which in point of fact, is lower now than it was a few weeks back, nor has it affected meat. But assum_ ing that it does affect butter and meat the improvement will not take us back to the 1929 prices and pure costs of production are based on those prices. We cannot make 1929 costs of production square with 1931 wholesale prices and the Finance Bill, 'that has at last been passed by the House, is designed to help to bring about some relationship between costs and prices. ' In costs Of production, wages form no. small part of the total, and if those costs are to he. reduced, reduction would be impossible if wages and salaries are not to be touched. The country has no mystic store from which it can draw out money whenever required. We get our income from the sale of our wool, butter and chepse, merft etc., and these products have netted us about £20,000,000 less than in the past season; even if we assume it to be only half the amount it will be admitted that we cannot spend as freely now as we .could, say in 1929 when our income, was so much greater. Reduction of wages is resented by the labour agitators, but their resent ment is more assumed 'than real, and is political eye-wash. Reducing wages does not necessarily mean lowering the standard of living, in fact it means nothing of the kind. Those sheltered by Arbitration Court awards have automatically had their wages raised because so many of the necessaries of life are now so much cheaper. Any reasonable housewife will admit that a pound note goes much further than it did. Thfcre is a gooci deal of misconception with respect to wages and the standard of living. The implication of the latter is consumption, while wages are paid for production. A carpenter is not paid according to any scale of consumption of which he and his family are capable, but upon the volume and quality df the work he does in a given period. If that wage is insufficient to maintain him and his family in reasonable comfort, then either his family is too big for his earning capacity and that it his .own fault and not that of the society, or his earning capacity is inferior. In the opinion of mnny sound men who do ndt voice their opinions in public, the ten per cent cut is not all the sacrifice the wage earners will have to make, More sacrifices will be exacted from everyone of us before the currer + v-'nr pieces.