The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1888. INCREASE IN PRICES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1784, 1 September 1888, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1888. INCREASE IN PRICES.

The butchers and bakers have commenced to raise the price of meat and bread in consequeuce o£ the rise in mutton and beef and wheat. _ We may Bay that we are glad of it, although it will doubtless come hard on poor working men, whose earnings will not be increased proportionately. We have only to hope that if ever a fall occurs in mutton and beef and wheat, the butchers and bakers will be just as ready to lower as they are now to raise the price of the commodities which they sell. "We welcome the increased value of, these articles, because they give us hope that the dawn of brighter times is breaking, and that we have commenced a new era of prosperity. Our progress may be t low—we do not expect to go ahead by leaps and bounds, and we do not desire to, for to go ahead to rapidly would, without doubt, result sooner or later in disaster. "We believe we have seen the worst, and that the past winter was the darkest hour in our long night of commercial depression. It is many years since wheat was half-a-crown a bushel before, and we hope we shall not see it so low again. Present indications certainly give us room to hope. The harvest in all the older countries has been a failure this year more or less, and in consequence wheat is rising slowly but steadily. I

For the last two months it has risen over one shilling per bushel. We have not in this colon]' experienced a proportionate increase yet, owing to the fact that it is difficult to get ships for the conveyance of our produce to London, but the price is steadily going up here also, and wheat is now selling in Obristchurch at three shillings and three pence per bushel. Most farmers, who sadly wanted something to put them on a hotter financial footing will not, unfortunately, experience much benefit from the increase this year. It came too late—when they had disposed of their grain to the merchants, and consequently they will not benefit anything directly by the increase in the price of grain. But they will benefit by it indirectly: The merchants, who i will make very large profits, will be in ! better heart to assist the farmers at present and to buy their grain next year. In this way those who have sold their grain will benefit: whila at the same time, the fact that there are prospects of better times will influence their creditors to deal leniently with them. As for those who have up to the present held their grain, they will not have much cause for complaint. They have had cheap labor, and a good price for the fruits of it, and consequently the year must prove prosperous beyond their anticipations. And now that grain is going up, that frozen meat is gone up, and that everything has an upward tendency, we feel certain that brighter days are in store for ua. Two or three good harvests, with good prices would make a vast difference in this colony, but we want that to put us on a firm footing. Many of our farmers, and other business mea have gone backwards for the past few years, and it will take them some time to retrieve the position they have lost. The fact, too, that the people have fallen into a chronic state of despondency, and that every one takes a very dismal view of things, must be taken into calculation. It will take some time to shake off this over-cautiousnesa and to restore confidence, but if the people were once reinstated in the position they have lost we have very little doubt but that the old enterprising spirit would return, and that an «ra of progress would ensue. Our whole hope, therefore, hangs on ourjiproducts fetching paying prices. "We ought to think over this tiil we understand it thoroughly. Cheapness is destructive of our happiness as a people; good paying prices are what we want to : put us in a prosperous position, but it is ridiculous and mischievous to limit the beneficent influence of good prices to wheat and wool and sheep and cattle. If it is well for us that our farmers and runholders should be prosperous, it must be well for us also that our bootmakers, our tailors, our shopkeepers, our merchants, and our manufacturers generally should be prosperous. In fact, we believe that it would be well to have our newspapers prosperous, too, because the. less they are under the control of the money-rings, the more likely they are to speak out independently. It is therefore a logical conclusion to. arrive at, that it is desirable that all should be prosperous, snd as it is good prices alone can render the farmers and squatters prosperous, so it is good remuneration for their work can bring afflueace to other industries. It is impossible for several industries to lire unless they get protection from the products of pauper labor of older countries. Yet the first men to cry against giving this protection are the farmers and squatters who have bean for the past few years loud in their lamentations over the low prices of their own products. The logic of their position in this respect is, " Perish the whole earth, but let ub live." That is a very selfish and narrow feeling to show, yet it is the position which those farmers who oppose occupy. They have protection in many ways ; railways and roads and bridges have been made to enhance the value of their properties, their grain and wool are carried on railways cheaper than any other commodity of the same weight, they enjoy numerous other privileges for which other members of the community pay taxes, and as a matter of justice and fair play they ought not to object to giving other industries room to live. "Lke and let live " is a time-honored motto, and it would be well if its full meaning were more thoroughly understood and the precept it teaches more generally adhered to. The manufacturers and people generally rejoice exceedingly in seeing farmers get good prices fop their goods, although they know it will increase the cost of living to themselves. In the face of that, ought the farmer to deplore giving good paying prices to those who employ capital, brain, and muscle in the development of articles as useful to man as his own ? We think he ought not, and we believe he would not if he only thought the matter out honestly and fairly, and looked at facts straight in the faee.