The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE AN EXPERT’S WARNINGS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3362, 15 December 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

AN EXPERT’S WARNINGS.

With which is incorporate*? ‘•'The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

Continuing considenation. ‘of the remarks made on land values by the Acting-_Chairman of the Bank of New Zcaland,’ at (the semiannual meeting of shareholders held the previous day, we may say that land prices, be they high or low, rcflect the vdemand there is for land. Lancl, as a commodity, gets its value in“ the same way, and by the operation‘ of the same laws as those operating in determining stock prices. If coliditions favour stock buyin-g, feed is plentiful, demand for meat, "hides, and wool are prospectively good, prices of stock rule high; but many a farmer has erred, ill-judged the prospects of the stock business, and has had to. sell, after using up his grazing, for less than he paid for a mob of cattle orsheep. Land may not be quite so susceptible as stock, but while tlle difiercnce is negligible the risk of careless trafiic is infinitely greater, The Acting-Chairman of the Bank, after emphasising -that some pastoralists and xagrieulturalists wene evidently basing their calculations on '3. continuance of present liighprices, said the Bank could 11'0t. but regard this as too Optimistic; there was the possibility, even probability, of a fall in prices of produce, and :this would naturally bring with it a fall in land values. While high prices rule, there will be ‘a demand for land greaterithan the supply, and prices will advance; but the -seller or present holder of land has no more to do with priee—mal{ing of land than the stock owner has the iiiuaking -of sTock prices at stock sales. It is the would-be buyer who makes the price, if the seller thinks the price not high enough he refuses to “sell, knowing he can do better with his stock, and so it is with land; the owner will not sell until ‘the to-fie-r bccom’e_'s such that warrants him taking on idleness until fluctuations bring land values within a safe purchasable range again. The Bank warns land purchasers that, at the abnormally high prices now ruling, land-buying is nothing but a gamble; that land values must come down with any drop in. ithe price of primary products, and the Chairman «expresses 3 strong hope that the Ba.nk’s customers Will so restrict their liabilities that when the fall in prices and shrinkage in land values do come, they will -not be involved in the -hardship and ruin they will bring. The man who accumulates large areas of land ‘on bank money, is less safe than the man who restricts his land hunger, or greed, t 0 what he can hold, whatever the future may bring forth in reason’. A It ‘will be well remembered that‘ in the ‘land: slump of 30 years ago it; was the I large holder !tha‘t sulfered almost without

lcxception, the greater the accumulai tion of «acres the more calaniitous was Itho i‘a.ll.. Thlosc farmers, great and small, who‘ acquired their land at Ipricos ruling ten years ago, or even ‘less, will probably weather any, finangcial storm. if they have not made the {mistake of adding to their |accumula:tions at present high prices. It has |been said that a severe land slump -would be the best thing that could l happen to New Zealand at -the present : time, as it would smash up huge holdlings quickly. But should we not reallisc that this is revolution. and that it l,woula be fraught with all those hardl ships that are inseparable from revoluition‘? It is believable tha't farmers, the world «over, never lived in more unlstable, uncertain times .than those Of to-day live in. In New Zealand this is not yet noticeable; farmers have not yet been drawn. into the chaotic whirlpool that has Overwhelmed farming, ‘production, industry, business and finance in the old world, but its Cil‘ClC Eis widening. Men hope for still higher { prices for meart and wool, but they are hoping without working against those huge combinations of capital that are determined to have control of everyithing the farmer produces, and virtually of the farmer himself.’ Shipping is against thlflgse island farms, thousanlds of miles from markets, and although the statement may not be worth much, it has been said in more than one journal that shipping interests are lending their aid in determining the elections in this little land. If a slump in prices eventuates nothing can prevent a slump in land values, and who are the people that will snatch up the freehold of’ our‘ land when present New Zealand holders are [ compelled to sell? In this Dominion we have not realised that our meat is by no means essential to-wards, satisfying the requirements of the British Government. The British Government has purchased our meat, but millions of carcases of it are in store in this -country, because stores in Britain are l full to the *-doors, and because Shipping is not available to take it elsewhere. The meat requisition has been 9. blessing in one respect, and a curse in another; ‘it has furnished a good market for the time being, but when the requisition goes it will leave 'our meat at the mercy and will of shipping comlbines and meat trusts. .Do we realise the risk that is being taken‘? If so, why ‘are no steps being token to: provide ships? The Shipping Combine is Wrath lwith the Australian Government for [_establishing its own shipping line, but bthe Commonwealth is buying more ships, despite the fact that the Combine will purchase the ships that Australia already has at any price the Australian people like to-ask for them. Does not this efifort of the shipping tmonopoly to induce Australia to part - with her ships provide ‘New Zealand. twith a subject for very 1. serious ulioiightt’ The Bank Chairman, in his ‘speech, impressed upon us that “it is of the first importance that any difii-.1 culties in the way 'of getting our -own 1 ‘products to market should be ,rcmovicrl.” Here we {have the lunb‘-iassed opinion of the Bank of New Zealand,, and yet neither Government nor farm- } erg themselves are_.takillg«.Aa.ny steps’ to ensure ample shipping. This country} is trusting entirely to foreign shipowners; la'n.d~gambling is proceeldingi apace, land values are advancing, pro- 3 du.ction ‘is not materially increasing; drunk with all our good fortune. we‘ are insensible to the ‘dangers that the, Bank and experts are drawing our] /serious attention‘ to, and it seems prob- I able that this will go on until the‘ Imperial requisition. of our meat or‘ pires, when this country will be thrown » on to its own resources, and on the mercy of the shipping combine. What a prospect! We do not know what is going to happen, and we do not care; W: ‘are taking the risk of whatever cventuates, without giving a ‘thought to what the future may bring forth. Have. not the working classes as "much cause to protest against lall<.l-owners and the Government drifting the country towards the revolution that may result from land-gambling, as they have to object to the revolution that extreme labour leaders may preci- 1 pitarte by the insane policy of. demanding high remuneiiation and fewer hours of work. The Acting-Chairnian. 01° the "Bank virtually tells lß.lld-g3.llll_)-lers and -genuine producers that their business is not being conducted on those safe li.nesz".lnd with those Sa.‘l:'c~l guards against disaster that alone] can save them, and ‘the masses who are d‘?l3@Tl<l‘3Di upon them, from disaster of an .:nlv:incc-d clla.l'a,c-«‘el'. It would be thought that having once -':Xperienced such a disaster land-owners land farnlors would exert themselves to] any extreme in finding mokins whereby‘ another such slump could be averted, and yet they silently permit the drift‘ to co‘ntinue_ 3