The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10 1920. THE WOOL GLUT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3624, 10 November 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10 1920. THE WOOL GLUT.

With which, is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino Newa”

The -Prime Minister made an important announcement in Jtho House <o-n Monday, in connection with the wool marketing situation. It' has been observable for some months past that buyers of raw wool were determined to force down wool values, and it was a part of the operation to keep retail prices of woollen goods at the very ; highest point consistent with the | .avoidance of prosecution as -a result of i public agitation. This process, of . course, reduced the demand, ! Rud left ' warehouses and stores full to-.the doors. Then -the manufacturers, desiring to avoid expenditure and render the situation more tense, wholly or partially closed down their mills and works, but they still kept up the prices of the goods in their congested stores. Humours were broadcast about mills closing down and stores being Stuffed full which created a! mild panic about slumps affecting woollen goods, and the 'general public held off from buying, leaving retailers with goods bought at top prices unsaleable. Prices were cut 'from time to time, ns conditions indicated more clearly that values were permanently moving on the > down grade; but whether it is coincidence or from any well thought out design, It is apparent that spinners and millers are going to have cheap wool for a year or two before their commodities bear any relationship to the cost of the wool that is in them. There is much maudlin nonsense uttered and written about preferential trading; about the need for making the Empire a close corporation by oversea Dom|inions purchasing their requirements only from British factories, mills and workshops, whatever difference of price there may ’be over and above that charged for a precisely similar - article elsewhere. By the bitterest of examples, the fact is kept,, ever before producers of the Dominion that British traders have eliminated all sentiment from their business. They arc determined to get this 'Dominion’s wool, and all other primary products it lias to market at the very'lowest possible outlay. Whether producers are adequately remunerated is no concern of theirs. The first step is to work upon the racial and Empire relationship by in- ■ ducing the Dominions to enter into a compact to give preference in selling to British traders. They urge that Empire trading insularity is essential if it is to be rendered’ safe from successful attack from its enemies; but when the utmost degree •Of preference obtainable is assured'it becomes obvious that the price to be paid to producers becomes the subject of consideration into which no sentiment enters, and British manufacturers will go on making, anything up to 3000 per cent, on woollen goods made from this Dominion’s wool sold at a controlled price. With their 3000 per cent, profit ( British manufacturers arc well able to bear the brunt of the worst Class of labour > trouble their exploitation of wool produces; they care nothing about whether producers receiving controlled .or trust-forced-down prices; are in a position to weather the industrial unj rest their exploitation is responsible for. While farmers are being forced to accept what the British trustmongers are disposed to pay them there will bo no sacrifice of profits by British manufacturers. Their audacity seems limitless, for they are bold enough to toll New Zealanders that | they must not establish their (own woolscouring works. Farmers must realise that trust methods entirely pervade the wool business,.and, as it is obvious that shipping combines are in 'league with trading trusts, their immunity from such conditions as the meatpacking trusts have forced American farmers into is dependent upon the course that, is yet' open 'to avoid them. It shouh] already be plain that New Zealand farmers have no choice of markets for their produce; whether they are cognisant of it or not they are being forced to market in accordance with trust and shipping combine wishes. They never will have a choice of markets until they' possess their own means of reaching all trading* centres, that would, be available if ships were available. Avoiding what may be termed extreme estimates, it is safe to say that if this Dominion controlled its own ships, farmers, with Ho extra outlay would benefit to the extent of several millions per annum. Will not producers see that if they demand world, or market, parity prices, it is certain there will he a wnrld parity price for labour? If there is to be a price levelling for comraodi•ties, there will also be a price levelling for labour. The disastrous aspect of the parity doctrine is that long before it comes into' universal vogue

almost incalcul.a.blc**atQas of Jand iu the countries of the world will be producing with cheap labour, and those countries will assuredly bring this Dominion ’Byproducts down to their price level, which can only mean bankfuptey while hundreds per cent, more for labour has to be paid by them. New Zealand could meet the shipping problem by working up into woollen goods the wool insularly produced, but the difference in labour costs will render that impracticable while British woollen trusts first get control of wool, and and then have it shipped to factories they have erected in countries where best skilled labour is plentiful at onefourth the price that has to be paid in Now Zealand for it. Wheat is already being purchased from Manchuria and parts of Siberia at prices that would be un remunerative to'farmers, in this Dominion, and it should need no strain of intelligence to see that something similar is going to happen to all other primary products so long as New Zealand farmers arc content to go on under meat trust, woollen trust and shipping combine control. The very first step towards emancipation of judmary production is to secure New Zea-land-controlled shipping, and if farmers would avoid the labour trust, they will put their own money into the establishment of a New Zealand shipping line.