HAWERA NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1915, Page 3

HAWERA NEWS.

(From our Dull ("mi respondent.)

During a conversation with Mr. S. Turner,"" 1"'.U.(!.5., on the present uiiilook re food products and the war. in' made thi' following comments:- --Seeing that there are millions of loud producers fighting in tliis st terrible of all wars it is not surprising that food products are selling at enormous prices, ami so tar as Australia and New Zealand are concerned both countries helped these high prices by the drought ill both countries during their last producing season. The high prices experienced for New Zealand butter and cheese will lie somewhat, reduced as the Northern Hemisphere, produces their supplies for their own and the English market, but there, is not the slightest doubt that high prices must rule for at least three seasons after the war is finished. This is caused by the markets of the world having a direct or indirect influence on the values; even the enemies' market for food produce is all'ectiug us because neutral countries are selling to the enemy, and early in the v.-nr at any rate bought from England large quantities of food, While Holland and Denmark can supply (formally with large supplies of dairy produce thVv will think twice before going to war, and it will curtail their supplies to the Knglish market. The same applies to all neutral countries. H is absurd for any man or Oovornmont to try to prevent high prices during war time lie cause man cannot be made to work at less than his value is worth, and the producer cannot be made to produce and sell butter or cheese less than the markets of the world declare it to he worth. The Government would be doing n serious injustice to try and regulate the fawner's price for his butter and cheese; on the other hand a'.! classes of workers demand more wages owing to the increased prices, and they arc justly entitled to more wages seeing that'their labors are producing more'. We have confronting the world the miners strike in South Wales, the best organised body of men in the world, who are after th"> increased value of the labor of each miner, and judging by what they have to I pay for food and all kinds of commodi- | ties the sooner the masters give them ■ wages in harmony with the change of conditions since the war broke out, I the better for the Kmpire. Tt would be J idle to expect the miners to make an I attempt to restrict the price of covn- | modifies and they know it, so their only j way is to get more money to be able to : live as well as before the war commenced i and values began to increase. This is I just the same thing that people in this 1 Dominion are. face to face with, am\ :t. 10s. F.niptv cows £■:, His to i,\ where inging onv.pty heiter £B. „[„„,, I sellers of butter are asking too much, h"- ! cause no good will conic of such an agitation. Sprrfkiii'j to one of the. leading members of Parliament in the Dominion during the Palmerston show week. 1 j staggered him by proving te his satis- . faction that butter factories were losing thousands of pounds sterling per week ' i by feeding the New Zealand public at • juices below what they could get by evporting to Australia.' Butter factories i wore losing foflO per week on the Wei- | lingtou market alone hv supplying .10 ' tons per week to that market, at Id to : lid less than they could get bv oxport- [ iug to Australia. Since my remarks the j Wellington market price' has risen in I value and made up to the Australian value. By the Government restricting butter from being exported to Australia they make a- step back when we think of the ideal conditions that we have been talking about in the sliape of reciprocity between Australia and Xew Zealand, because when next we approach Australia on this matter they might say how about the time during the gTeat war I when our people wanted butter owing to our butter famine, and you prevented j your merchants from exporting and our 1 people had to pay nearly double what you were paying for the same class of butter. Against that of course is the ( natural law that we must see we have enough butter for out- mvn supply. Yes, that idea seems alright, but the price will regulate that, and seeing we hace been made a prosperous people bv the, | values of the world on the English and j other markets, we are entitled to those , values at present, or the Government arc inflicting an injustice on the farmers (this is from the farmers' stand- ' point). The price of butter and cheese ■ in New Zealand has been considerably | below what England has been paying . for it until recently until the Australian values made the "difference caused by their drought, and although one mer- \ j chant might make a name by being p.v . I triotic and not realising the value of I , food and other commodities, it does not I follow that this is' the just and equit- , able way of regulating the conditions I I during war time. On the other hand I . I consider it is a false and absurd way of . i trying to settle the differences, and the only way is for the working man to ger. I an advance in his wages to make up for I the altered state of tilings. For instance. ! we know during war time that we must , have economy in the consumption of I food and all commodities so that some | people will not have too much and others too little, the only and the in i.-t natural way to make the quantity the individual eats become as economical as possible is to make him pay the correct value for it, and that correct value to be what the world's markets demand it to be, apart from any local or provincial agitation by people who do not understand what makes values of products. It is a well known maxim that the high price reduces the consumption of any commodity that the people can do without. If the people eat butter substitutes in this country it would help to bring down the price just the same n.'s it does in England, but here the working man eat 3 the very best butter and a very small quantity of seconds and no margarine. In England the working - man eats a large percentage of secondly butter and margarine, yet for most part 1 of this last year shiM the war broke out the English price was just as high i if not higher than was being 1 paid by j the New Zealand people. Cheese will ' continue to be very much better for the I farmer to make than butter because it I is governed by less competition, and , there are no good subxtitut 1 :-: lor , while it is just as good an article of i'oul las butter found for pound. It has been rumored that the Government has cut cheese out as a ration, but this has not i been confirmed, and I don't believe it. I On the other hand it is likely that they would buy Canadian cheese' while the i Canadian season is on, and it is q:i!" fair that they should give Canadian ' cheese a turn; but when Canadian chce-o ' goes oil' wo shall most likely resume j our supplying of the troops," and the .market will benefit accordingly, and ,\o i will continue to get war prices.