The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday. at Noon. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1920. A FREE MARKET.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 507, 20 February 1920, Page 2

The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday. at Noon.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1920. A FREE MARKET.

"We nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."

The decision of the gathering of farmers at Feilding to demand that requisitions of farm produce shall be put an end to is the natural consequence of the scandalous profiteering that has during the last two years taken toll of the labour of the hardest working and most indispensable class of the community. While it was believed that the Imperial Government alone was making a profit out of our staple commodities, wool, meat, and butter exporters, with the exception of the few inevitable curmudgeons, who did not desire to help the Motherland to win the war, had very little objection to offer to the commandeering of tthe results cf their labour. But now that the war is over, there is a confirmed feeling abroad that the market should be made a free one.

We most heartily endorse thia view, though our endorsement must by no means be taken as an indication of our belief that the Imperial requisition ought never to have been made. We feel certain that during the war period it was of the vers greatest service both to Great Britain and ourselves, and we recognise unreservedly that it was orfly by this means that we were enabled to get the goods out of the country at all, and preserve ourselves from national bankruptcy. The debt we owe to England for her command of the sea, and our knowledge that the sacrifices we made were as nothing compared to hers, made every right-feel-ing farmer glad to aid her Government and her people, even at the cost of a portion of his profits. And when we take into consideration England's losses of ships while carrying our produce, it may be doubted if her gains were as great as the popular imagination paints them to be.

But now that the war Is won and danger at sea from enemy action is over, we can see no .good reason for carrying on a system that has served its turn, but is now no longer necessary. That it is at present leading to shameless plundering, both of the producer and the consumer by conscienceless manufacturers, both here and abroad is becoming more painfully evident. New Zealand manufacturers are enabled to buy their supplies of wool at little more than one-half more cost than they could before the war, and there is no earthly excuse for the present price of New Zealand made clothes. The Imperial Government sells our wool in the open market at twice and often thrice the requisition price, plus the cost of carriage, and the price of our locally-made clothing is put up into line with the cost at which the British manufacturer can place his fabrics here. Theer is no requisition on hides, but there is an embargo placed on them by our own Government. No hides can be exported from the country until the New Zealand tanners have been allowed to purchase what they require. When they have satisfied themselves, and outside buyers are allowed to operate, the Drices are at least doubled. It would be imagined as a natural corollary that the people of New Zealand would secure cheap footwear. But, as with woollen goods, the price at which the English manufacturers can place his wares here, for the raw material of which he has paid at least two and a-half times as much as the local man, is what we have to pay for our boots and shoes. It is a pretty commentary upon this action of the Government to be told that Victoria and New South Wales, where the market is free, and the consignment cost of new hides at least doubled, get cheaper footwear than we can. Thus the producer is robbed and the consumer not one whit benefitted. We are willing to concede that the embargo was imposed in the hope of helping the people of the country. Now it has proved a failure it should be removed without delay.