The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1920. FREE MARKETS AND SHIPPING.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3382, 10 January 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1920. FREE MARKETS AND SHIPPING.

With which is incorporate*? The Taihape Post and Waimarino Nowb.”

Shipping conditions ‘have not improved recently as shippers of produce were told they would do, why is only a matter of conjecture, although there are signs that Australia has been wellserved of late. There is yet-za very large quantity of meat in -store in The Dominion,~and it looks rather like hoping against hope to have that clearance madc that would enable freezers to breathe freely. Generally shipping has certainly improved, and ‘it was officially stated 1a few days ago that .Britain has already -five per cent more shipping than before the war, despite the submarine campaign that was going to starve E-n-gland into subjection to Gel'ni'any'. At present the new season freight is an unknown quantity; there is a prospective shortage in the South Island, but there is hothing yet to indicate any less quantity -of stock ofi:'ering than in former years. The North Island has experienced an a.ver--age laxnbing season, and an average plentitude of feed, conditions which have not obtained" in the South, from whence lambing reports are anything but ~gra:t-ifyingg. Lalte heavy snows have also wrought much injury to flocks over a wide area. Whatever‘ shortage of stock there may be in the South, it cannot be of such dimensions as to have but little effect on the shipping problem. To the shipping uncertainty there is the added uncertainty as to whether the Imperial Authorities will renew the meat requisition when the present period , ends next’ June.‘ Mr Massey is of opinion that the British Government will cease handling meat, and should his prediction prove correct, wlrat is goingto happen? The price «side of that question, untrammclled with shipping considerations, gives no cause for alarm; the selling price of ”-ineat will, of course, rule high in Europe for some years to come if left free of rep}-gs-sive Control, and there are very strong iiidications that a free market would return higher remuneration ithan Imperial control has furnished to producers. It is an inerasible blot on the New Zealand nfeat business as conduct. ed by the Imperial Authorities, for the filtration between the money paid to the producer and that paid by the retailer cannot be explained away except by the one word, “exploitation.” It Seems even now that should the commandeer be lifted shipping com. panies will care nothing about New Zealand interests unlesg some very special inducement is oflfered, and it is already rumoured that shipping companies are making contracts that are overwhelmingly in their faVou,._ It seems almost beyond comprehension that an island country like this should continue to trust its all in the keeping °f foreign ShiPPillg combines. What case it would bring to the mind of every producer were he seized of we fac‘t.th'a.t a. State Shipping fine was in readiness to take away his stock to the best market offering, for, at pmsent, large sums of money are spent in appealing for ships, in meetings of §reezlng’companies,.and of farmers for iscussmg the Shlppmg problem, and in controversies and comments in the various pub.lic'new-spapers. With de--llJ;.3l:dabTle sliipping, marketing condir:‘““lJ-’° “‘l§"”*’“‘la‘°‘¥ fiend-rbley a notwf ut 'Wlt~h the unilaphag , nmcer am shipping gewlce ‘ . now obtains the free market is rrauglit with some risk, for any coflg-cs-men 111 store will be at freezing companies’ or owners’ risk, liqwevm. long mm? may be kept there. We. must admlt that we have not yet discovered

iany new indication of shipping im}provenlenr. It did seem obvious that when hundreds of ships were released ifrom freighti-ng food and munitions, iand. later from repatriating soldiers. ithere would be marked improvement, jbut the released ships do not appear Etc be finding their way to New Zea.l lillld, and there is no satisfying explaniation coming either "through private channels of information, or through i either the British or New Zealand Gov‘crnments. Farmers are meeting in conference, and because most of us are iof opinion that higher prices are ob- ‘ tainable through the free market, they are taking a somewhat blind risk about shipping. Every pro and con should be ‘brought to bear before any compreShensive, definite course is ‘decided upOn; the prize ‘is yet away in the distance, and the first Essential towards obtaining it is to make absolutely sure Of a good and -safe course to it. Dairy.farmers are much in -the same gposition ‘regarding shipping as pastoralists are, and the d'airy£armers’ arguument for a price that more nearly I'oPl'9S€’«llts the market value is uncontrovertible. At a conference held this week dairyfarmers emphatically decided to take the shipping risk, and demand iafree market after next July, when the Imperial requisition expires. [We have some respect for the opinion "of that dairyfarmer who contended that shipping was not the-only risk in acquiring marketing freedom. I This farmer said that ‘higher prices would produce a land boom that would do iincalculablc injury. He points out that the high prices of but-ter-fat. have put up twenty pound an acre land to anything from sixty to one hundred and thirty pounds an acre. It is absolutely certain that butter prices will go down, and then what is to become of the hundred pound an /acre men‘? This is the line of thought this particular farmer takes up, he will not, however, find many to agree with him; everyone is being drawn into the swirling vortex of high prices "and big profits, caution is largely cast to the winds, and after next July both imeat-growers and dairyfarmer.s are likely to be troubled with -their own marketing aitairs. Instead of selling [to the British Government, they will sell to middlemen butter exporters, and in place of Government responsibility for shipping they will shoulder -their own shipping difficulties and take the chances. This point represents the extent of marketing vision, beyond it is darkness and uncertainty." The question is to be discu-ssed further in Wellington on the 16th inst., when other guiding light may be shed upon it, and {better and safer grounds may be discovered for farmers shouldering full marketing responsibilities. They will, with the ‘hope of receiving higher profits from a free nrarket, be discarding Government purchase and Government shipping, for the butter middleman and the shipping combine. We do not for a moment urge that farmers are not doing thebest in their own intersets, but we do believe that those interests are best served by taking into consideration every aspect of "A the question that now cvershaddwg it.‘ A contract with a. shipping company might ‘be excellent business now, but. what will it be as butter prices recede? Of course, there is the possibility, perhaps pl'o' bability, that all commandeering will be abandoned, and in such a case whatever farmers can do and devise. now will prepare them for that day. If farmers have any desire to rid themselves’ of "shipping problems and marketing risks they have but one‘ course iopen to them, and that is, in an ocean-girt land like this the State should furnish the shipping; it is inconceivable that this country Should go on increasing its I7l'odll<3ti°ll; and still be content to depend upon a ship‘ ping service owned by strangers WllO are out to squeeze them for whatever fl'eigh{-ego, circumst'ances of isolation permit.