THE PROBLEM OF PRICES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 68, 20 March 1915, Page 9

THE PROBLEM OF PRICES.

, HIGH RATES HAVE TO BE • ■■' ■•"""'■■ FACED. 7 ■••'-

KEEP DOWJT FAMIXIE UJCBEASEB. BY PERSUADING riiRJJEBS *0 SOW. In view of. the -ever-rising.- tendency in ±he. jirice, o£ foodsiwffrt: and the growing murmur which. a 8" beirig heard from tha consumer about th c increasing- «oct. of living, iurden, it will be interesting to know .ffie opinion, on the eubject of one so experiencedjn finance-end the econonu ics of .supply and -demand ac Mr.. Harold Beauchamp, chairman of directors of the" ..Bank, of iJSTiew 'Zealand. In. 'discusaing ihe matter with a '".Star.", representative this- morning he remarked: " Having.regard tp the shortage of so food, it is only conceivable that ; -high prices will rxde. You caim'ot get past the inexorable law .of enppjy "arid" demand, which fixes prices in accordance -with that. bar. I ±hink, however, that t"he Government are to be commended for tJie ■'action-they , have token."by enlarging the proclamation in "which 'flour can be imported into this epuntiy- free of duty, and also by the action they 'hare taken in importing large quantities of wheat from California, Canada and Australia, and which has been distributed throughout the length and breadth of New Zealand, Had it not been. for. these imports of wheat and flour i»-day, bread would no doubt b e touching almost famine prices. What we ought to do now is to encourage farmers by all possible meane in our power to put in mbre grain for cultivation during the' approaching ■ winter and "spring. In the past a great deal of land in this Dominion has gone out of ; use for agricultural purposes" because farmers" Ifave 'been able , to make money so much easier by devoting their attention to- pa*toiral-.pursuits. -There are, besides, not the , same risks attendant on pastora] pursuits as occur in agriculture. But with the prospects ahead, it should not be difficult to induce farmers to give more attention to grain crops in' the next few yeaie."