The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1919. PERSECUTION AND PRIVILEGE.

Taihape Daily Times, 12 September 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1919. PERSECUTION AND PRIVILEGE.

With which ia incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

It seems to have become the rule with the present Administration to disregard the fact that all laws are supposed to give equal justice and opportunity to all. and privilege to none. The Board of Trade has miserably tailed in giving reasonable satisfaction to the whole body politic, and now the Wellington Chamber of Commerce is reviving its proposals for the appointment of a Ministry of Commerce. The Chamber doubtless realises that the Board of Trade is merely being used as an excuse for tin chaotic condition trade, commerce and production is rapidly drifting into; it is apparent the Board of Trade is responsible to no one except, perhaps, to an Administration that has hopelessly failed in conducting departments over which 1 it has direct control. Instead of laws of the land being based on equality they actually penalise one section at the expense of another. A dairy-farming deputation to the Premier resulted in the Head of the Government frankly admitting that suppliers whose butter was kept for local consumption- were penalised as against others who were permitted to export, and he promised that this condition should not continue, but al though he admitted the injustice had been going on for sometime he did not deem it -his duty, or did he realise that it was his business, to see that the penalised farmers should ,be recompensed. Mr Massey justly admitted the principle that, prices were not and could not be fixed by the limited demand in New Zealand, and however hardly this fact may press upon us. it has to be realised. To say that any man should he compelled to part yvitn his products at less than he can readily sell them for, is only one step removed from taking them for what the State thinks proper to give. In fact, it is nationalisation pure and simple, by whatever other name it may be called. People are inclined to favour this nationalisation of the other fellow’s business but no restrictive or controlling Land must touch his. No avenue of production has been more subjected to this insinuating nationalisation than the timber industry. The Governracnt, through its Board of Trade, has taken the sawmilling -industry by the scruff of the neck anl shaken half the life out of it. .Mr Massey frankly admits that world markets must fix prices of our products, and yet his Government has not. only fixed the price timber must not exceed, but has also prohibited expert beyond a restrictive limit- Surely no form of nationalisation could more arbitrarily limit tbe getting and marketing of timber than this dual effort at crushing the industry. It has to be fully'understood that sawmillers can get two shillings per hundred feet more for their timber than the price fixed by the Government. If the ■ foreign market determines the fair value of one product, surely it wont bo denied that it should control the value of another. There is just as serious j a world shortage of timber, perhaps more serious, as there is of butter or any other primary product there is a world-wide demand for, and this- is evidenced in the fact that the New Zealand Government is compelling timber producers to sell their product at two shillings per hundred feet less [ than can be got for it in Australia. What will Mr Massey do about it? B;’ allowing sawmillers to export another million feet of timber this 'country would be richer by £IO,OOO. By munj acling the industry at both ends, by I fixed price and restriction of expert, the Government i s miserably wanting in foresight; it ha s not occurred to them that as time goes on timber will become more scarce owing to the demand of increased' settlement in Australia. and that try as they will to keep prices down, they will of necessity utimately bo governed by supply and demand. The trust or combine that engineers low prices is just as dangerous as the trust that engineers high prices, as they limit the actual carnirjg capacity of the community as a whole, be it our own Government or an American combination. There are industries- in which price-limitation should in justice to the people be carefully practiced, it is in such industries in which the prices of the raw materials they use have been fixed. It is obviously wrong, dishonest, to fix the price of the producer’s raw material and then give manufacturers carte blanche to charge the public just what they please for the article manufactured. Government has endeavoured to realise the corrctness of this principle

in limiting th e price of boots, and yet the price of timber is arbitrarily made two shillings per hundred feet lcs s than is being offered for it, while those who use it can charge what they please, and the country ig losing £IO,OOO on every million feet of timber so restricted. Let it be realised at once that there is not sufficient timber in the world to warrant its waste in erecting t<?wns and cities of wood; that' the State may penalise sawmillers, but they cannot prevent an urgently needed article that is rapidly becoming scarce from increasing in value, and particularly, that the little supply and demand in this country will have no influence in determining future values. If butter suppliers are suffering from unjust legislation, then sawmillers are having a double dose of that injustice forced upon them. Laws are made with a view to protecting minorities, and it should be the duty of any Government to sec that laws are justly applied, administered so that equality is supreme, that none are persecuted while others, are privileged.