GENERAL NOTES.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 109, 5 December 1918, Page 3

GENERAL NOTES.

The war has put up the price of everything. The public is veryprone to accept this fact, as applied to the commodities it is immediately in touch with; but is apt not to be so charitable to other sections of the community. The dairy farmer has had a great deal said -about him, and the critics have been apt to overlook the facts that increased prices have followed on increased costs. The following table gives a comparison of a few of the prices of dairy requisites before the war and to-day..

Time was when employers assiduously preached that the interests of capital and labor were identical. Then came the socialists preaching that labor's interest is inherently andinveterably hostile to capital's. It was as false as the other doctrine, but it was more plausible, because the incidental concrete facts lent color to it.. Now in both camps there appears to be a pretty oxtensive atmosphere of mutual suspicion and truculence. Labor

and capital contend over the division of their joint product. • Left to its will either would cheerfully put all four feet in the trough. What apparently requires emphasising is that the product is a joint' one. Most of the talking is done nowadays by socialists on a socialist basis, that . is discussing the general principles involved which, however, does not present a solution of the problem of how to divide the joint product.

Very many people have wondered how managed to last as long as she did. They were puzzled to understand how her man power remained as great as it was. In ordinary civil life about 14 people out of every 1000 die in any given year. Combined British and French figures show that out of each 1000 soldiers sent to the hospitals 45 die. These men are already so ill or have received such wounds that they must be taken into hospitals that have no room for trifling ailments. Of the wounded not quite one out of 20 dies. Of all soldiers wounded in action four-fifths return to service. Only fourteen and ahalf out of each hundred are discharged for physical disability. In many cases the disability that renders a man unfit for the arduous manual work of the army impairs his efficiency for civil life very little or not at all. Positively the slaughter has been enormous and the cripples are many. But when due comparison is made with the number of men engaged then the figures do not appear as large as we imagine they would be.

. One of the great after-the-war problems will be the question of Government management. Government management is easy now. Governments created a world condition in w rich the normal motives of trade were reversed. They said to industry *' Produce up to the limit and we will absorb the product. Finding markets, selling goods, cheapening production all are secondary now. For the present your problem is to turn out the greatest possible quantity'of goods regardless of cost. We will buy all you can make regardless of cost." The Allied Governments pooled their products, and by arrangements eliminated overlapping, or what in normal times would be competition. It was imperative for the sake of the common weal. With peace the necessity departs. Finding markets will be a very different thing to what it has been when time was the essential factor, when the cost counted for nothing.

A touching incident was witnessed the other evening, just prior to the departure of the ferry steamer for Wellington (says the " Lyttelton Times "). A young married woman had received word from the military authorities asking her to proceed to Feathßrston Camp as her husband was dangerously ill, and enclosing a pass. Thinking the pass included the steamer fare, and having little money in the house, she caught the express to Lyttelton, only to discover at the ship's side that the pass was for the railway only. In her distraction she appealed for advice to the constable on duty ( at the wharf. Several passengers came forward and offered the price of the fare. After the steamer left a collection was taken among the passengers, and over £9 was raised for the distressed woman.

1913. 1918. Rennet per 45/m 1011 p.c. Bandage per yd 2|d l-ld 4(30 p.c. Salt per ton 88/£18 803 p.c. Parchment lb 7|d . lod 100 p.c. Nails, wire staples, cwt. 17/0 65/270 p.c. Butter boxes each nid 21109 p.c. Cheese crates ea. 1/4 2/8 100 p.c. Garb. Soda cwt. 9/52/(5 ■1S3 p.c. Soda crystals c. 6/27/6 288 p.c. In addition to above oil, coal, biushware, etc., show an enormous increase. .