TRADE AND PRICES

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2241, 29 August 1914, Page 6

TRADE AND PRICES

- SosiiTlittle concern is being evinced in Australia respecting attempts to artificially regulate prices by I Act of Parliament, and by so doing preventing the public from possible attempts at exploitation. There appears to be a growing opinion that the task which the New South Wales Government has undertaken will prove , of little practical value, and that the best means of helping the general public to pass through the war period with as little hardship and distress as possible lies in quite another direction. The purpose of the Government and of all classes of the community, it is contended, should be to strive by every means within their power to encourage the normal conduct of trade and industry. The Sydney Daily Telegraph, in discussing the matter last week, remarked:— '~

Tke difficulty here just now is not represented by famine prices for food or clothing, in. those articles there is no famine. It is the limitation of employment by which, people are threatened with lack of means to purchase them at any price. With men in work at the wages ruling in this State they could for a while tear a twenty-five per 'cent, increase in the price of tinned salmon and such, delicacies, and even etand doubled rates for cream of tartar without very much, distress. ■ But without any increase in the cost of living at all tho unemployed have a serious difficulty to face. Much of tins unemployment from which people are now suffering is, however, an avoidable evil, duo to tho proverbial follv of shaking hands with the devil before meeting him. . . . Then there is the mistaken economy of well-to-do-people, who imagine that they aro helping wf people over a_ critical period by curtailing the expenditure on which many, men are dependent for work. Tho poneral tendency to hoard, which arises in all such crises-, lessens employment, and as every man out of work is one customer less for the goods which labour produced, tho evil grows at an increasliiS ratio. If tlio Government could devise some practical means of coping with this temporary difficulty it would do far more "ood than it is likely to accomplislii by any attempts to regulate prices. Indeed there is more reason to fear trouble from that source than from any undue I inflation.

Another aspect of the was also touched on by the Sydney paper and one which concerns us hore in •New Zealand. "The danger of such legislation" (aa the attempt to rcgulato it pointed out, -'ia.

that it might restrict the importation of things the people want by causing traders to fear the Government may interfere with the sale of them." This dancer is a, very real one. Traders already find themselves confronted with many unusual difficulties. The ordinary means of communication and in many cases the- customary sources of supply have been interfered with. A very serious obstacle placed in the way of our overseas trade is the abolition of code telegrams. Many large importing houses depend extensively on their special codes for.market information and for the sending of orders, and are greatly handicapped, and the cost of working their businesses is lai-gcly increased by the non-accept-ance by the Telceraph Department of anything but messages in plain English. We are told by the Chambers of Commerce in. Britain that one of the best ways in which we can aid the Empire is to maintain the volume of trade with the Mother Country, but yet these obstacles are placed in the way of our merchants and traders doing what is urged. It has also to be borne in mind that importers havo to pay . increased freight charges and insurance for war risks, and in many cases the prices of goods and raw material in the Mother Country have gone up. It will be plain from these facts that if trade and business are to be encouraged as is necessary full liberty should be afforded traders, and every assistance should be given to provide facilities for keeping'in touch with the Mother Country and for the transmission of orders. Moreover, the greatest care must be exercised to avoid any risk of creating the impression that traders are faced with the possibility of being forced to sell their goods at a loss._ The purpose of the Government is. of course wholly commendable. What is required is that in seeking to attain the object in view injury shall not be done to the general trado of the country by causing merchants and traders to curtail or close down their businesses through fear of undue interference. Possibly the Government may be able ere long-to arrange with the Imperial authorities for the transmission of code cablegrams, subject to supervision, from recognised firms of whose bona-fides there could be no question. In the meantime .every effort should be made to re-establish the business of the community on its normal footing, and to convince the timid that the slackening of their efforts and their lack of confidence in-'the future are unwarranted, and merely militate against their own interests and those of everyone else.