Reducing Costs.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20085, 14 November 1930, Page 12

Reducing Costs.

The country's growing anxiety over the problem of excessive costs is shown in evidence f romall parts. It was one of this chief subjects . discussed by the Associated Chambers of Commerce at Aft. Cook recently. A few days ago a. conference in Dunedin, representing ■ urban #p4 rjiral Interests, . U» necessity of easing the; load of taxation and other costs borne! bf, producers; yesterday a New Plymouth; telegram reported the suggestion of the Stratford Chamber of Commerce that the Associated Chambers should co-operate with the Farmers' Union, during the period of low still falling prices, to bring costs down. Of the three or lourprinciples proposed as the - bttrfr'. at,'cooperation* noi to Jay much.; Thei Statel spendsfep mnek as.4 spends too unprodactively; if -is' too much' of a bungler in its own business and too much of a busybody in that of others, and its folly and its fuss are both expensive. This is well under* stood, and perhaps the. Chambers of Commerce do. not ; need .to be reminded of it or to b« encouraged to remind the Government of it; but more active atteritteir cotUd : be given to the tion, which, whether it is extended to workers or. to • industries, can be unwisely extended and maintained; and has been. It always costs something, often eoste a great deal, and the cost is . always .paid, in the end, by the ! unsheltered, export industries; that is, by the country's ultimate source of all.' prosperity. Sometimes this cost is worth pay* ing,. though it ought always to be carefnlly calculated and seldom is; and it has generally been possible to pay it, even thepart of it not worth paying. But the difficulty has increased and has become, in' the end, an impowibiUtjr. Dominion ie no lpnger

producing on terms favourable enough to enable it to pay all sorts of costs on the level at which they have been tied up. The knots must be relaxed and costs be allowed to slip'down to a supportable level. Otherwise the position will be, quite simply, that production will slacken and stop, and the country be at a disastrous standstill.