WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3569, 3 September 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

DEATH OF LIBERAL LEADER. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, Sept. 2. The death of the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald, leader of the Liberal Party, is a painful shock to all members of the Legislature and to a very wide circle of friends. Mr MacDonald had been in ill-health for many months, and it was no secret that he had been doing his work under difficulties # He was compelled a few weeks ago to enter a private hospital, where he underwent a slight operation, and he returned to his place in the House of Representatives while his need of rest was still great. His death may have been hastened by his devotion to duty. Mr MacDonald succeeded to the leadership of the Liberal Party in difficult days and he did not possess the brilliant parts of some of the men who had gone before him; but. his who w'ere to be found in all political parties and in every section of the community, knew that hi s inspiration was an earnest desire to do right, that His honesty of word and of purpose were above all question, and that his sturdy commonsenle and his wide practical knowledge were of high value to his party and to .his country. The people of New Zealand could ill spare him. THE BUTTER PROBLEM 1 .

It seems certain now that the retail price of butter from the beginning of next month will be at least 2/9 a pound and quite possibly as much as 3/ a pound. The arrangement made between the Government and the Imperial authorities for passing into consumption a quantity of requisitioned butter remaining in store here has so far kept the srice down to 1/9, but this source of supply will be exhausted by the end of the current month and then the price set by the Imperial authorities’ purchase of the new season’s output at 280/ a hundred-weight will come into operation. Whether this, taking the retailers’ charges into account, will work out at 2/9 or more remains to be seen. LAST STRAWS. Meanwhile there, is very widespread dismay at the prospect of a rise of 60 per cent, or more in the price of dairy products l , universally regarded as among the most essential of the necessaries of life.’’The newspapers are being deluged with letters on the subject. Ministers are being, bombarded with protests and the dairy farmers are being threatened with retaliatory measures. The price of milk of course, is determined by the price of' butter-fat and the Imperial authorities purchase means not only that the price of butler for local consumption will be enormously increased, but also that the price of milk will be raised in a similar ratio. Even at present prices many a hardly pressed housewife is scraping together as much as 12/ or 15/ a week for milk and butter and the 60 per cent, increase will be the last straw in "her hard lot h? THE WORKERS’ THREATS. It 'was reported months- ago that the workers on the Wellington wharves would refuse to handle Butter for export if the local price of the commodity rose above 2/ a pound. The officials of the men’s unions do not confirm, this story, but they are ready enough to recite a score cf. reasons why the price should not soar so high. The arguments are quaintly impracticable, but they certainly display a desire to get at the root of things. They claim, for instance, that the consumers in' Wellington are paying the interest on the mortgages sometimes ten or a dozen deep, on the Taranaki dairy farms arin thus hearing the burdens which should belong to the land speculators and the profiteering landlords. The world’s market does not enter into their scheme of economies. It rises superior to such trifles. THE GOVERNMENT’S ATTITUDE. As far as can bo judged from his public utterances, Mr Massey has no intention of intervening between the dairy farmers and their good fortune On returning from his last trip Home he let it be clearly understood he had no sympathy with schemes for reducing the price of butter at the expense of the producer alone. If there were any reduction at all It must be at the cost of tine whole community. The contention was quite in accord with file teachings of the text books and no was affronted or g! eally perturbed when the farmers who had contributed to the Equalisation Fund were reimbursed from the Consolidated Fund. On this occasion, however, there seems likely to he no attempt to gild the pi]] 0 f dear butter. It will have to be swallowed in all its nakedness and paid for accordingly.