Manawatu Herald TUESDAY, SEBTEMB. 21, 1920. THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2179, 21 September 1920, Page 2

Manawatu Herald TUESDAY, SEBTEMB. 21, 1920. THE DAIRY INDUSTRY.

AIR. W. D. POWDRELL, M. 8., Chairman of the Koupokonui Dairy Co., one of the largest dairying concerns in the Dominion, issued a warning note at the annual meeting. lie said that “the hanks were re.'lriciing some businesses, having a tear of rash speculation. He •.vould like to say that although places for produce would be high, 2s !.*d to 2s this year if the market remained good, he Hid not think it could continue when other great ■producing countries were again in working order. The banks and the Government could see the danger, and he fea.red that some dav there would be a rebound, and someone would suffer. In view of all these conditions and signs, he would alter a word of warning to farmers not to !h* rash, and to see that if they paid a high price they got the best, for he knew of cases where very high prices were being paid for land that was not the best. People who have rashly rushed into dairy farms on the assumption that the present abnormal prices lor dairy produce will continue indefinitely, may come a cropper within :l.e next two or three years Land is only worth what it will produce, and to buy in on the lop of a wave brought about by the disturbance of the world's market, at the instigation of speculators and land agents, is an unwise policy, it smacks of a garniile. The whole thing hinges upon the law of supply and demand.

and who is to say what next season's prices will be.' There are also ominous rumours lhal the transport workers may lake a hand in the game if prices go up abnormally. on the assumption that local consumers are being exploited in a necessary article of food which the country produces in abundance. A Parliamentary Committee is now taking evidence with a view to lixing the local price, hut whether its (hidings will meet with general public approval remains to be seen. Alany things may happen in Ihe course of the next three months which will cause grave anxiety to those concerned in the dairying industry. IT will he objected, comments the N.Z. Times, that the New Zealand farmer is nol responsible for the high price of butter; that the world's market fixes .the price a I Home al ds a pound, so lhal he ought to get 2s 9d to 2s 10d here. But similar conditions of land monopoly, land aggregation, and land speculation obtain the world over, and enter into the world price of huller. lienee, if Ihe farmer inisls on Ihe world’s price for his butler, it would only he poetic just ice Ip keep down ihe price to Ihe New Zealand consumer —if not lo Is 9d a pound, al least to 2s a pound by means of tin equalisation Hind lo he provided by a substantial land lax. This would check speculation and reduce the. present abnormal land values, while a I the same lime encouraging production and tending to reduce the price of butler and other produce, If the resulting ob-ject-lesson. as it well might, induced other countries to follow suit, the world would have a lighting chance to escape —or, rathe]-, a chance lo escape without lighting, without revolution —from the existing economic impasse.