THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1922. BUTTER AND BUSINESS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4365, 13 January 1922, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1922. BUTTER AND BUSINESS.

Adversity, though shunned by all, is often to some extent a blessing in disguise. The decline in the price of butter-fat. is having such an effect on business of all kinds that the general .public is coming to a fuller realisation of the fact that the welfare of the primary producer is the most essential factor in the material life of the Dominion. In proportion as the farmers are prosperous or in stressful condition, so the industries and commerce, of the towns increase or diminish, with the resultant effect on trade, employment,. and wage?. It is commonly said that the farmers who are suffering most are - those who gave too high prices for their land; a wellknown Thames Valley farmer of long experience expressed to a representative of the ‘ Gazette the definite opinion that no farming land in the Dominion was worth £5O per acre, when the fluctuating market prices from year to year were taken into consideration. Many will disagree with that estimate, but there is no doubt that thousands of farmers have paid too much for their land. It is also plain that other folk, merchants, salaried, and wage workers have gone in for

rash purchases during the past few years, and have been just-as much lacking in foresight and business acumen as the farmers were. The decline in values will teach us all a much-needed, salutary lesson. But while there are grounds for great caution, there is nothing to warrant pessimismValues will probably decline still further, but wages and general commodities must follow suit until a normal balance is arrived at The rise in wages came long after the increase in the cost of commodities during the war, be ing forced up only when the wage-workers and salaried men could no longer make ends meet; the decline will be similarly delayed until the purchasing prices of commodities fall. But an allround reduction in cost and an increase in efficiency must come in the very near future, after which the dangerous boom and subsequent depression periods will have given place to stabilised conditions and normal prosperity.