WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1921, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE CLOSING YEAR. 'ANXIOUS TIMES AHEAD. .... (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 27. The year is closing with no very bright prospects before any section of the community. The producers, with the exception of the wheat-growers, are threatened with a period of low prices; the business men are faced by difficult financial problems, concerning both themselves and their customers, and the workers are menaced by a slackened demand for the services they have to sell. The whole community, in short, is confronted by the adverse operation of certain economic laws which are now taking toll for the violence done them during the war and the early days of peace. The producers probably are in the hardest plight of all. The Government has been buoying them up with predictions of an early recovery of prices, a lowering of shipping charges and a better system of marketing. But all these things still are mostly in the air. The improvement in the price of wool is more than counter-balanced by the sharp decline in the price of butter and the continued stagnation in the meat market. At the moment, at any rate, the lot of the producer is not a happy one. A DIFFICULT SITUATION. Business men of all degrees are suffering from the decreased earning power of the producers, many of them severely. While Mr. Massey has been preaching the gospel of optimism, hard work, and economy, companies, firms and individuals have been bearing on their sorely taxed shoulders most of the burdens of the producers, whom neither the Government nor the banks have been able to assist with anything more sustaining than sage advice and kindly wishes. With big declines in land values and in stock values the business men have been compelled to take hold of propositions they would not have touched in normal times. What will I e the outcome of all this it is impossible to say. There are plenty of people arguing that high land values are at the bottom of the whole trouble and that everything will be well with the community when they are reduced to a reasonable level. But the process of reduction, on the scale suggested by many of these reformers, would involve in most cases the extinction of the interests of the present owners and a search for a new set of producers.

A REVOLUTIONARY PROPOSAL. The alternative to this drastic proceeding suggested to the Government by a deputation, which described itself as respectable, that land values should be substantially reduced in the interests of the present holders and that the State and the mortgages should bear the cost of the operation. This, of course, would mean repudiation of a kind that public opinion would not tolerate nor Mr. Massey approve. The bare suggestion, however, some idea of the situation the busmess men are handling. As a matter of fact, in many cases they already have placed themselves in the position of bearing all the risk of “carrying on” in accordance with the Prime Minister’s appeal. The interest of hundreds of producers in their farms has been practically extinguished by the drop in values. They are remaining on their holdings as the representatives of the mortgagees, and, to do the mortgagees justice, they arc remaining, in most instances, on conditions that are by no means illiberal. But talk of repudiation, which challenges the very basis of financial and commercial morality, is wholly reprehensible. THE WORKER’S CASE. Amidst all this bother and confusion it is extremely difficult to ascertain exactly how the workers’ case stands. That the men who toiled with their hands fared passably well during the war, no one acquainted with the facts can honestly deny. Their wages were high and their conditions entirely tolerable, while the service demanded from them was not exacting. They should have no grievance against any other section of the community on these scores. But the position has changed very much since the days when both money and employment were/ abundant and the value of service was not carefully counted. Producers and business men have had to look very closely into their affairs and many of them have discovered that the cost of such services as they receive is mpre than the services arc worth and more than they can afford. There must be a readjustment somewhere. Either there must be better services or lower wages. Employers, almost without exception, would prefer the former, but it is for the workers to choose. On their decision will depend greatly the speed with which normal conditions are restored.