PREVENTING THE EXPORT OF FOOD.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 20

PREVENTING THE EXPORT OF FOOD.

(Australian Meat Trades Journal.)

Socialists, in their efforts to bring a-boufl a perfect Utopia, show a peculiar disregard! for the forces which underlie our complicated human existence. They picture ia theii minds a world removed from strenu." ous work, where food and clothing can be> aot without the toil of earning it. Thq» Labour Party in Australia is going for Socialism pure and simple, and at the rey cent Labour Conference in Sydney the fof* lowing resolution was moved : '|That tha Government should enact such legislation a3 to prevent the wholesale exportation of food) suppli-es — principally meat, wheat, and butt ter — leaving such a shortage for home consumption that people are compelled to buy the remainder at high prices, the increased value going into the pockets of speculators." The mover said he hoped the farming delegates would not take alarm- at thei resolution ; it would be as good for them as for th<~ general community. Three years." supply should, in his opinion, be kept .in| the country before exports were allowed^ Bread was hiciher than the bountiful harvest warranted, milk was up on account of the heavy butter shipments, and meat was 400 per cent, higher in price than it was when he came to the country. True, thi? proposal was defeated by M votes to 25, bufi it is a. 6ign of the times wihen such a proportioa of votes a.re given for a. proposal to utterly opposed to all eoonomio laws. Tha Australian Commonwealth has been buiJo up by its export trade, and, being a prqducing country, only an export trade- can kesp us going. We are already handicapped! by our distance from the markets of tliQ world, by the keen competition of otner countries, and by the over-increasing cost o£ production; so that the proposal to puLa tax on exports is the height of imbecility. It would just kill our trade. Every bag of wheat, every bale of wool, every carcase of beef and mutton, every varwl> of produce sent out of the country bringß money into it, and this money filter^ through innumerable channels and provide^ employment. Tax the export, and etop if, and employment would be gone. The farm labourer would not be wanted, _ and thd shearers, slaughterers, carriers, railway men, wharf labourers, and the host_ of mem directly and indirectly employed in getting produce down to the sea coast would find! their billets gone. Thus the labourers them* selves would be the first victims of tneis l leaders.

The working man is rig/ht when lie com* plains of thevhigh prices of food, but hH should remember that it is largely the con* sequence of his demand for higher wageS and shorter hours. It costs more to orciduce articles s of food; therefore, . the conrmunitj must pay for it. The- margin o£ profit on moat, butter, and wheat is nowj so small that the working man should b0 thanklul that trade exists to provide errt-' ploymont for him ; and, in view of this, tha proposal to tax the export trade is as shor^< sighted as it is absurd.