The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26. 1917. AFTER-WAR ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.

Taihape Daily Times, 26 November 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26. 1917. AFTER-WAR ECONOMIC CONDITIONS.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Walmarino News).

Next to winning the war, the subject that should most engross every intelligent person, and particularly so, the producers of the world, is atterwar prices for their produce and the general conditions that are to prevail. Sir Joseph Ward, speaking to a large gathering of leading people in Southland? last Thursday, said conditions prevailing after the war would be very different from what they are at the present time, and he warned farmers that within six months after peace was declared there would be a heavy drop in the price obtainable lor their products. He emphasised the opinion that it was necessary f o r New Zealand to realise what her portion would be when this time came. The London markets would govern priceu and the people in England would not be able to pay those that are now ruling. Reading between the lines of what Sir Joseph Ward says, it is not difficult to see, fully disclosed, that some legislative price-fixing is to be adopted that camlbt be resorted to while the war is in progress. An aspect affecting the laws of supply and demand not exhaustively treated by Mill or other economists is, that people cannot afford to pay the prices which an untrammelled operation of the ordinary laws would determine. There will be no cessation or weakening of the demand for our produce after peace is declared, in fact appearances and probabilities arc quite the reverse_ For, nearly the whole world will be anxious to purchase our wool, meat, butter and cheese as well as our live stock. The whole of the European nations will want cattle to replace the dairying stock that have been eaten during the war, as well as for a basis of their future beef supply. The Meat Trusts know all about this and they are buying up all the cattle they can even to those to be born four years hence. It would be particularly interesting to know from Sir Joseph Ward what attitude the Government will take in connection with the stock that is purchased four years before it comes into being. If

the Trust cannot get . the British market price, will the Trust be allowed to send it to Germany? We do not think they will be allowed to send it direct to but will they be free to send it to America, from whence they can despatch it where they please, whether toe people in England are in semi-starvation or not? These, and amny cogent vital questions are what our farmers and the people of this country should, in their best interests, be giving very serious attention to. Sir Joseph Ward said the people in England will not be able to pay the prices now ruling. Which, prices, Sir toe prices that our farmers are now receiving, or the extortionate prices the trusts are now dishonstly exacting? Is it not a fact that the British Government is now commandeering New Zealand meat at fourpence and fivepence a pound, and is allowing meat trusts to sell that same meat to the British people from one shilling to one shilling and sixpence per pound? Farmers, and the people of this country .have the right to know at the earliest moment what Sir Joseph Word, or the Government, is in a position to tell them ? to know just as near as possible what the* conditions are to be six months after peace is declared. There are indicaSir Joseph Ward, or the Government, may govern the distribution of this country’s meat then, much as it is governing the disposition of wmol now > As the price of wool is fixed from the Government to the Spinner, and from the Spinner to the manufacturer, so- it may be the intention to govern meat prices to the retailer and from the retailer to the people. It is obvious that if such a system was in vogue the farmers of New Zealand could still be paid a fair price for their stock and the British people could get wholesome meat at eighrpence or ninepence a pound, assuming, of course, that shipping archexploiters are no longer permitted to ply their nefarious operations. The telegraphed report of the Finance Minister’s statements need further explanation as regards men on the land requiring financial assistance. What men ; those in Britain or in New Zealand? The context leads one to choose between the two views. Following the statement that the people of Britain would not be able to pay present prices, he says men on the land will have to be helped and returned soldiers will have to be put on the land_ Although we shall have dif Acuities almost as extreme here this country will without doubt do its duty to the Empire after peace is declared as it unquestionably has done during the war; but the elimination of trust operations between the producer here and the consumer in Britain will be an essential in avoiding trouble. The law of supply and demand is, seemingly, obsolete, for Sir Joseph tells us about an Elysium of low prices and cheap money. We take this to mean that conditions are to tfe cultivated that will result in prices of life necessaries being brought into a saner accord with wages paid The old process of leveling up ? in prices being chased by wages and vice versa up an Archimedean Screw, is to be and we are to make a new start on the basis of low prices and cheap money. It is in opposition to the law of supply and demand that our. Government has harped so much about, and it is contrary to the human nature the world has had experience of for the last half century. We can only hope for its success, and most people will wait its advent with considerable interest, and, we may say, misgiving. To place the people in Britain on an honest footing—prevailing conditions are anything but honest—all the B'ritish Government need do is to destroy the vultures who grab from ninepence to a shilling a pound from every piece of meat men, women and children in Britain now eat. We want Sir Joseph Ward to fully realise that taxation far more burdensome than that farmers are i now paying is an absolute certainty and necessity ? and we also want him, in any after-war adjustments he may be called to coadjudicate upon not to overlook the fact that our primary products will need to be kept at a level that will enable the ruck of small producers to pay the burdens that will moat assuredly be put on their shoulders. We have no fear for the men with thousands of acres of land, who are turning their places into huge cattle ranches something like those of the South American kind; it is not such people, they 'need no consideration; it is the smaller men such as those around us that are being mopped up pretty freely, while their intensively worked sections are being added to the ranch system. Converting New Zealand into a country of ranches will not furnish the taxation the land will be called upon to bear. We see hard times ahead for this class of small settlers, and we would like Sir Joseph Ward to perform his duty to an extreme by letting them know Just what 1

to do in preparing for the hard time he prcdicts i It is nonsense to say producers must be satisfied with twopence per pound less than they are now receiving so that British people may get meat at twopence per pound less, for meat would still be a prohibitive price in England. If only that reduction is to bo made to the corn sumer in England that is paid to th. producer we shall have reached the reductio, ad absurdum for farmers might be getting nothing for meat that would still be from ninepence to a shilling a pound in Britain. Is it not obvious that it is the trust that is the curse that has come under our supply. Sir Joseph says he would hang any food exploiter. We wish he would commence, for if there is no exploitation between the New Zealand producer and the British consumer it is time we realised that it is no longer profitable to ship produce from this country. If the British consumer is only going to benefit by toe decrease our producers can accept as the irreducible minimum, then it is time now for Sir Joseph to commence the hanging business.