The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1920. PROFITEERING SHEETED HOME.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3450, 1 April 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1920. PROFITEERING SHEETED HOME.

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

Australia has so frequently been‘ paraded by members of the present Government as a place in which liva ing is much more difiicult. than in New Zealand that no one can take any exception to Australian official in-’ formation and statements being_.quoted to drive home the truth of our eon- i tention that woollen mills, which the masses have been taxed for years to build and,“ support, are amongst the most audacious means used for profiteering, for. robbing those working classes who were, and are, compelled to pay for their uplreep through a protective tarifi. We have, time after time ridiculed the deliberate dissembling. of interested fieoplc who lake farmers’: wool at fourteexipenc-'9, and! after manufacture keep it until people i are compelled to pay anything up to‘ twenty shillings for it; we ‘have urged that by no method of reasoning could there be found any excuse for cheating both producer and consumer, but these people have hitherto satisfied ‘ the Government and its jackal, the Board of Trade that they should be left to exploit the people of this Dominion, first, through the customs, and] then by hundreds per cent. on the cost | of manufacture. In yesterday ’s issue? we quoted from advertisements ini leading English newspapers showing? that blankets of high quality were purchasable retail at twenty shillings‘ a pair. There is no doubt about this fact, but it becomes positively bewildering when yvc are told by our New Zealand importers that ‘they cannot import worsted suitings under from forty to fifty shillings a yard, for it is impossible to co-ordinate good,‘ white, flcecy blankets, retail at twenty shillings a pair with one yard of worsted at forty-five shillings whole‘sale. Now there is oflicial evidence available from just across the Tasman Sea, from a place wherein our Government have pictured such a condition of plunder that costs of living there had soared to a height not experienced in this Dominion. The people’s attention has been rivefted down by Government and the ’B?)'ard of Trade to a statement that in Australia sugar is sixpense a pound, while it is only threepence halfpenny in New Zealaud. Well, that only goes to show that the Sugar Refining Company is conducting a very much more profitable business there than in this country, and goes a long way, if not all the way, to disclose the cause bf the shortage, of sugar in Taihape. Australian profiteers evidently thought they had as wickedly a conniving ‘body to deal with as the Board of Trade is in New Zealand, but the Fair Profits Commission, of Melbourne, is a body with moral ‘backbone. A Melbourne firm wrote down their figures for the secret use of the Cominission, showing the profits they were taking on locallymade tweed, and no doubt the manager ‘of the firm was somewhat startled when the Chairman of the Commissioni told’ him his firm was charging a much higher profit on locally-made tweed, than they were on imported tweeds. The guilty firm’s manager tried the‘ New Zealand specific for getting out of the difficulty,-but it didn’t have the desired efiect; it._was useless to say that the small profit on imported ‘tweed 1 had to be evened’, up by putting al hundred "per cent_,on the locally-made ~tweed. The" Chairman said: “You bought Australian tweed atl6/6" and you sola it for 13/6-—‘more than 100..

per cent profit.” Then. he oifered a little good advice in saying: “Yong go and re-mark these goods at a reasonable advance on cost, if not the Commission will have your books investigated, and instead of bringing you here on one charge, the principals 1 of your firm will be brought here on a‘ series of changes.” ‘No doubt, thatj manager took the Commission’s advice, I and the upwards of 100 per cent on] colonial-made tweed will ilisappeanj and the cost of a dress or suit of; clothes will proportionately shrinks‘: But, let us imagine, if we can, the New Zealand Board of Trade doing anything as straightforwardly. The Commonwealth House of Representatives furnishes further evidence on the nature of the exploitation that is proceeding in the colonial manufacture of colonial-grown wools. Woollen mill owners insisted‘? upon the lie that it was unprofitable to manufacture at. a less price than they were charging; The Commonwealth Government were not dishonest enough to pass the lie on to the people and permit the robbery to continue and grow; they acquired Commonwealth woollen mills’, and although they were told that the State could not hope to compete with private enterprise, they turned out three qualities, the number one quality being 5/6 a yard, the number three (highest) quality being 7/6 a yard, all of which were sold in Melbourne shops at double those prices. We are quoting a statement, made in the Federal Parliament to the House, bythc Assistant Minister "oi" Defence. The manager of . the Government clothing factory, at South Melbourne, gave evidence before the Basic Wage Commission, during which he produced a ;slnart-looking grey suit, Which, he said, 'was rctailed to returned soldiers at three pounds. The tweed had been supplied by the Government Woollen Hills, and the price of the suit was lbascd on the price of the material at

‘6/()' a yard. He added: “The factory lcould turn out 1500 suits per week, .and with more hands and ~ material the factory could suppply suits to the general’ pub- ? lie, like that exhibited, at. £3 a suit._’’ One cannot help making comparisons, ‘ because it is*apparent, thai.‘~Vllltlll‘iSlllU ‘which is a privilege of the few, and, cannot be made honest by making it! possible to all, an exploitation whereby the few rich are rapidly made immensely‘ ricjhdr, .'while the poor are made proportionately poorer, is a curse i upon society, a sin for which society } will have to pay the penalty. We now [have it on unchallengcable evidence v that a good quality, smart i tweed suit can, be made in‘ ,State workrooms in Australia _ for ilthree pounds,‘ at a "fair profit to lthe State, while just such a suit ini New Zealand is costing the unfor-.| itunate soldier ten pounds. There is, no mystery about how Australia. does it, the whole process has been venti-i lated before judicial bodies, and ex-E plained on the floor of Parliament. We see a judical body in Australia‘ considers it a crime to levy :1 profit of} 100 per cent on tweed, while a judi-1 ieal body in New Zealand considers iti quitciproper to permit upwards of 100! per cent profit to be charged on baby! flannel. Pooiyunfortunate babies in this country are so much worse otfi I than in Australia. Our Governmenti -claims that it has enacted the mosti drastic anti-profiteering law in the Empire, but what is ithepuse of it ifi it is something the Government isi afraid to allow to see daylight for} fear somebody should spoil it The, iwholc world is being driven to civil. war while men say, “ ‘What is the use of having a. war if we don”: make something out of it.” Prime Ministeifl Hughes has the preseience to see the on-coming revolution, and he has put State machinery to scotch the profiteer. His judicial bodies tell the vultures to go and mark their woollen goods at honest. prices, or he will order an investigation of their whole business, and pl'<';_:~:eeute and punish them iaccordingly. To prove to the people .rl:at woollen mill owners are practicing the most revolting deception he Icstablishes State Woollen Mills, arul tweeds are made at a profit that ~,_>ro--fiteering houses are selling at more than double'the price. While Prime Minister Hughes is doing this in the Australian Commonwealth, what are we doing in New Zealand? Our Government has enlisted the whole populace as spies to spy on retailers who sell a tin of baby food once a week, on butchers who charge a questionable price 3 pound. for tripe, but is it not all nonsense when a firm is caught charging over 100 per cent for baby flannel it is allowed to go stainless by our law courts, the most drastic antiprofitcering law in the world notwithstanding? The workers of this Dominion need no longer be deceived about what. the cost of clothing7should be; British newspapers disclose that any quantity of good blankets may be had at twenty shillings a pair, and the Australian Government has purchased wool from Aust’ralia.n ’farinesr. put it through all its processes, and produced a. really high-class suit. of’ tweeds that can be. and is, retailed at a. profit for three pounds Here, then,_ is abase from which worlters majfistart in their‘ efllorts to avoid revolution.‘ A ,1 _