GETTING BACK TO NORMAL

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1922, Page 7

GETTING BACK TO NORMAL

EVERYONE MUST HELP. (Contributed.) It has to >be a case of every man and woman in the country co-operating to keep down the coat of living before we can hope to get back to a normal state of affairs again. Every commercial enterprise that is started without due regard to the best interests of the whole community is in. danger* of hindering the return of better times.

Take, for instance, the trading that is being done by certain dairy factories. While at a casual glance one might be inclined to think that the farmers are profited by getting goods at a very low price, this is only an illusion. The fact of the matter is that this ill-ad-vised departure from regular factory practice is costing the province—and in a sense the whole Dominion —a considerable loss.

In the first place, the factories are losing money through selling goods for less than they actually cost; factory shareholders are losing money in reduced dividends —or none at all; co-operative warehouse shareholders (farmers again) are losing more money through reduced dividends due to loss of the trade which goes to factories, and, finally, the country suffers through the farmers’ inability in some cases to pay his bills. The whole thing is so obvious, so logical in its result, that those responsible for the trading carried on by dairy factories will no doubt go into the matter again, and drop this department that is costing them so dear.