PRICE LEVELS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 20, 24 January 1936, Page 14

PRICE LEVELS.

EFFECTS OF HOSTILE TARIFFS. The Government's stepping stones to . future prosperity and economic security : are many. The farmer depends very 1 largely upon guaranteed prices, and the . manufacturer upon protective tariffs. ; The question confronting New Zealand to-day concerns the exporters' price levels. The farmer is forced to sell on a world competitive price market, and ! is expected to buy on a highly artificial : protected New Zealand price level, tracei able to unnecessary taxation and hostile 1 tariffs. There is hardly any difference between the manufacturer and the farmer, whose raw material is land and [ stock, and whose finished article is . butter, meat and cheese. The farmer to-day is buying dear and selling cheap, and the procedure cannot continue indefinitely. Guaranteed prices must' equate the .world's competitive price levels with New Zealand's artificial price level, which is a result of unwise tariffs and heaped-up taxation. One observes with concern the present failure to arrive at any international agreement on tariffs, and the readiness of the New Zealand Government, in common with others, to embark upon a policy which reflects tariffs is one which makes not for peace, but for war, trade if not actual. HARRY WOODRUFRE.