The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1920. SLUMP IN SKIN VALUES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3633, 20 November 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1920. SLUMP IN SKIN VALUES.

With which is incorporated .“The Taihape Poat and Waitnariao News ”

The first auction sale of sheepskins since the Government commandeer of 1 skins, in 19JJ7, took place in Christchurch last Thursday. When a retrospective view of the nature of the leather and leather goods market is taken, • noting the inexplicable lack of reI semblance Of prices between hides and leather, there is ample room for enquiry and speculation about who it is that is so outrageously exploiting the farmer, as well as the mass of consumers. Consumers and farmers seem ■ to be more than justified in demanding a revolution in the methods of handling primary products. They may well ask what there is in sight to justify a 55 per cent, drop in the value of sheepskins. The people constituting the consumers and purchasers of lea- [ thcr goods have not experienced any reduction in price to any extent; lot 1 alone a reduction to warrant skin buy- [ ers refusing to buy unless at half the 1917 price. If there had been any great variation iii the price of leather goods it is only natural that it would be reflected in skins. As there is no observable difference in prices at which leather goods are sold, except, perhaps, that they, are higher than ever before, the disastrous slump in | sheepskins can only be attributed to ; the collective action >of those men who d control the skin markets. Now that market controlling has begun .to disastrously affect the value. of this Dominion ’s exports,, it is high time the (government' such measures as would result in producers getting the real ‘ ‘ square deal ’ not that kind which has become a joke, a by-word j for jest. The cause suggested foi? the low prices offered Tor skins seems, by nature, to be mere subterfuge. It is reported that because' there had been a heavy decline in wool, it was expected there would be a serious decline in skin values. It has not yet been disclosed that leather goods are made of wool; therefore it is not quite clear why wool prices should affect ( skin prices. It may be said that when , there is no demand for wool, there is a short call for skins, but that does not naturally follow, for times were when skins were comparatively low, while wool was in high demand at prices that were in no way on a level with what skins were fetching. Is it not rather a fact that the market controlling corporation has commenced a forcing down *of skin values which is not justified by the prices that are still being charged for leather goods? Even skin market habitues and experts were astonished at the alarming character of the pricc-forcijig-down process; for, taking into consideration a drop of skin values in Australia, and the irrelevant drop in wool values, the low prices obtained were a matter for surprise, j The fact, that three-fourths of the offerings were sold is testimony "in support of the idea that farmers know thqy are in other hands and thatthey are in for a period of. victimisation intervening between the present and that time when the low prices paid to them will be reflected in those the consumers are compelled to pay. There is room for wondering what the Board of Trade is doing for the high salaries members receive. Here are

skins ranging in price from one penny to ninepcnee per pound, and leather goods at from ten» shillings to forty shillings a pound. There are harebrained writers who, apparently, see j no danger in this country’s exports being of less value than its imports. Should it not be cause for alarm such as wopld bring together in conference and consultation every section of the I Dominion’s trading and producing community? Does no responsible person think it worth while to ask where the millions of profits that are taken between the raw material and the finished boots, other leather goods, and woollen goods, go to? They do not go into the pockets of the producer, and they result in effectually emptying those of the consumer. The retailer buys on a tariff arranged by a huge controlling body, who take particular care ho does not got more than enough to-keep him in business as a distributer of the goods, and so the exploitation of (the v/hoie community continues, and the Board of Trade is regarded as something set up to render- exploiters immune monsense and common honesty people are entitled to ask why leather goods should be selling at unprecedentedly high prices while skin-buyers will only

give farmers from one penny to sevenr.aTK'e halfpenny for such skins as this country has to offer. The answer is that skin-buyers have received the wink and the nod from the marketriggers about what prices are to obtain at the respective sales. The huge

profits accruing go to the men who furnish the capital, whether they live in Britain or elsewhere. The wide difference in. cost iO(E raw material and finished commodities is a scandal that is only possible of prevention by a complete revolution in the marketing system,- and at no time in the history of trade and commerce has there been such an alarming and disastrous difference as at the present moment.