The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1920. A RE-SHUFFLING OF VALUES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3615, 30 October 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1920. A RE-SHUFFLING OF VALUES.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Pbst and Waimarino News ”

The trend of the markets for primary products, and ffor all classes of raw materials, is not reassuring to men living and working in producing countries . The frequent drops in value of meat, wool, hides, wheat, as well as those- serious falls, amounting to slumps,"in some sub-tropical and: tropical products,, notably tea, give cause for thought in connection with national incomes. New Zealand cannot remain immune from the effects of lowering prices for the products, from the land, and as cost of production is increasing, chiefly through Labour’s dual demand —more money; less work the outlook should give some cause for alarm concerning the future. the world’s market value was at one time a stable basis upon which growers could safely rely, but in these enlightened days of the development in commercialism they are about the limit in fickleness; if anything, less stable than water. One of the dominating difficulties of the near future will be that of finding a market for what New Zealand has to sell. The day is not far distant, if world experts in finance and trade give true indications, when prices for primary products will be well down to tfce pre-war level, if not a grade o rtWo below them. Parasitic industry is strangling the life out of producing industry; the consumer of products would crush out the parasite, but the farmer fights for it while it is sucking out the virtue of his soul and the blood of his body. There is something appallingly fascinating to the farmer in the rich trappings of the parasite; the gold and fine purple of the parasite has caused the farmer to get the notion that he upon the parasite, not the parasite upon him, and ho stakes his last shilling upon upholding the rights and liberties of parasites generally being respected. The Government is urged to nurse them, and Labour is warned, against exterminating them. So it is that the parasites, who have been driven off from a dying industry in America, have come and settled upon New Zealand Industry, Government and farmers opening their arms in invitation. With full knowledge of the fact that Armour and Company are at th« moment being prosecuted on thirtyseven counts of profiteering on New Zealand lamb in America, the Government still seems to be desirous of inviting Armour and Company to stay on in New Zealand. It is not shown that the successful floating of the loan the. Minister of Finance is notifying to-day is in any way dependent upon such institutions as Armour and Company represent. But all such happen‘ings have to be taken into account if a safe future is to be assured to the soldier and other farmers who have , bough© land at what will yet be shown to be .fabulous prices. Farmers have been guided in the past by their bankers on matters of marketing; to.-day they are showing an inscrutable preference for the trust parasite, whose display of opulence Jicts as a decoy rather than as a cause for caution. The producer has not yet gathered sufficient evidence for him to sec that all the fine rich trappings of the trust come out of what the farmer produces. The glamouPaOf wealth hypnotises him and he falls a ready victim to the parasite that will in a few years leave him a dull, helpless, moneyless slave. There should be a danger signal of striking importance in the rapidly rising value - of money; one financial and trading institution after another is transferring money from reserves, issuing shares against it, thus converting it into capital where it will earn anything up to one hundred per cent., in place of earning nothing further than'' public "confidence. There is unlimited confidence in financial circles that' capital is going to have a long rum on the upward, appreciative course, and therefore every available penny is to be taken from reserves and everywhere else and converted into earning capital. All that is necessary now is that as much as possible of the floating currency has been collected through high prices, is to keep it from going back to the public. What does go back must be at the increased \'aluo the releasors have the conscience to put. upon it. In permitting Armour and Company to trade in this Dominion it is admitted that markefs and interests of farmers arc already in the realm of emergency and expediency Is the future of farming already so black that the Meat Trust is resorted to as one of those stimulants which leave the patient worse with every application? '(’here is no avoidance of the feet that jest as soon hs Now ZealaT,d has - Pint.?, shipping lino there will be a complete stoppage of exploitation of New Zealand meat by trusts;

else, why is it that State shipping is so desperately opposed in some quar-

ters. If producers or a New Zealand Government could control shipping, Armour and Company would not now, in all probability, be prosecuted for profiteering upon New Zealand lamb in America Had it been practicable for farmers to ship their lamb independently of Armour and Company, in their own ships, they would have netted eightpence a pound for it instead of threepence. Armour and Company bought from the farmers at threepence, or thereabouts, and sold it to the American people at eighteenpence, and if that is the. class of market Armour and Company are going to furnish, it i surely invites some looking into. It is of vast importance to the progress of this country that producers should thoroughly recognise and analyse the two great dangers with which they arc j threatened —dear money on one side; i low' prices for their produce on the other. Labour, of the extreme kind, has a notion that by some process of legerdemain wages will go on increasing, regardless of high money value and low prices for products. Everything sold, not omitting labour, will be governed, from a price viewpoint, by the world market value, and if labour cannot produce at the price ictfch wages at five pounds, wages must come down to four pounds, governed strictly and justly by the world market value on all occasions and in every respect. Frenzied finance and frantic exploitation were the result of an insane, panicky abandonment of all system and rule; a tumultuous orgy of profiteering resulted which will rapidly run itself out, and banks arc the first financial institutions to see the necessity for taking steps to stem the rising tide of disaster. On the other hand, the trust has permitted farmers to have one ship just to prove what an utter fallacy it is that New Zealanders could do better with ships of their own. Mr. Herbert Kendrick, a well-known British trade expert, admits frankly that the frantic trade profiteering is over; trade is now 7 passing through a dull and dragging period in most industries, and a readjustment of sw r ollen prices in all industries. The same authority states that all primary products are passing down a steep decline. In addition, international politics are fast trending towards a better distribution of produce and manufactured goods, which must result iu strong furtherance of ''the cheapening process. The one great question facing this Dominion is: s How will it raise the revenue necessary for paying interest, and for current ad- / ministration purposes?