PROFITEERING.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 August 1920, Page 5

PROFITEERING.

SIR JAMES WILSON'S VIEW. "There some feeling , engendered against the farmer, at the trend of prices, blaming iiiiu for the soaring Costs," stated Sir James Wils'on in his presidential' address, delivered to the annual conference of the New Zealand Farmers' Union. "The position is not so at all. The woolgrower gets Is 3d a lb. for his wool; it takes about a pound of wool to make a yard of and about Ave yards of cloth to make a suit, so that the manufacturer in New Zealand gets woo 1 ! enbugh to make into cloth for a suit for 6s 3d. He has 110 competition, and therefore can charge his own price. When the farmer goes to the tailor for a new suit, he is told that 'on account of the greatly-increas-ed price of everything, 1 must charge you 15 guineas.' If the farmer is wise, he will say, 'l'll wait, and wear my old suit another year.' If the city man is told the price, he can say, 'All right; I'll pass: it on'; and if a worker buys a suit he can say, 'Another rise on the cost of living, so I must have more wages.' A friend writes me: 'Of the four partners in the firm of Woolgrower, Manufacturer, Tailor, and Distributor, the first (the grower) gets 6s Sd for his wool less the expense of grow-' the Bheep, shearing it, and delivering the wool. The other three get something like from £7 to .£lO between them, according to the cost of the suit. No wonder the cost of living goes up "