THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1906. DEAR FOOD.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LI, Issue 9067, 12 April 1906, Page 4

THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 1906. DEAR FOOD.

At Timaru the other evening the Premier (suggestedi that! Government jshoujld start meat shops (and also fish shops), no* in London as previously proposed 3 but in New Zealand with -the view of reducing pnces to consumers. He expressed the opinion that rings "were keeping up the prices, and that something must be done. Why, he asked, should New Zealand: meat be cheaper in London, than in New Zealand. Perhaps some of the meat expoat companies' recent balance-sheets would afford an explanation so far as the last twelve months is concerned. The Christchurch Press ridicules the idea of State meat shops and fish shops. . "Imagine," it says, "what would aresult if the Prime Minister were to' take on- his^already overladen shoulders the responsibility of (runrang butchers' chops *ancT fishmongers' businesses in- the principal towns. Such undertakings can only be made to succeed by keen buying and: selling and close personal attention to business, on the part of men -who have been brodght up to the tirade. Imagine such work being done by

Government officials with an army of inspectors and auditore over them, checking the takings, endeavoring to stop leakages of various kinds, to say nothing of guard- ; ing against bad debts! A faint idea of | the state of things which would prevail may be gathered by stopping a few days ' at a Government accommodation house, : wheTe the guest, on leaving, has to sign vouchers until he begins to wonder whether he has not bought me entire property. We doubts whether any self-respecting Audit Office would iai!low a pound of chops ot sixpennywoTth of fried fish to be sold i on the State's account unless there was at I least one sheet of foolscap signed and . counter-signed to record the transaction. In any case we are quite certain that the ' Premier's project would _be doomed to ' 'failure from the start, and we give him credit for sufficient commoneense t<o be fully .aware of this fact. This being bo it is a great pity that her, in his responsible position, permits' himself to talk about such impracticable schemes, because it- only st<rengthene the impression outside that New Zealand is a fad-ridden country, ever ready to embaTk on some mooiustruck craze." The Premier, defending his ideas, told an interviewer that there was nothing incongruous in has suggestion. He said : "It as quite in 'keep- : ing with the successful policy of recent | years. The Government's' aim is to re- . duce the cost of living, and with this end in view it has- opened State coal mines | and initiated a project for the erection . of homes for workers at reasonable rentals. I If we can reduce the cost of living to the • working man by 6s per week, that means in effect an increase of Is per day in his • wages. What has been hampering the j colony for some years past has been.; that j the workers, through the Arbitration Court, the Government, and the Legisla- | tare, have been securing increased wages, while the benefit has beea taken from them by the action of combines. In re- ! spect to food and coal supplies there has j beetn, co-operation, in which ship-owners I have been concerned in maintaining high .prices. The resulting increased cost of living has, mr my opinion, been the prid(cipaJ cause 'of the demand for higher the Arbitration Court. The ' workers are getting more money than they did in past years 1 ; but' the" position of themselves and their .families ie not improved in proportion to- the increased wages. Now, it is clear f that -the 'constant pressure upon the workers may re,- ' suit in forcing the rate of wages up to a point which, the industries of the 1 colony will not be able to bear, and that | [ may Tesult in disaster. It is geneirally are- '. cognised that it is obligatory upon the j ! State to ccc that the people get clean and I 1 sound fooa, and I don't lumk the State j ' would be going a 'bit too far in. seeing thait I , the people got cheap food. In Germany i for many years the law has been that the price of bread is fixed upon the basis of ' the production of wheat and it© value. I \ think that the time is ripe for New Zealand to take similar action in regard to important articles of food.. There i» one body of people generally overlooked entirely," concluded) Mr Seddom. "I mean the people who hold salaried positions. . They are not sufficiently numerous or suffi- . ciently well organised to have political power, and while the cost of living has ; been going up their salaries have remained stationary. They are living in a sort » of gianteel povfet^ty, and .they feel the high prices more keenly than any other section of the community. If coal, fish, and meat were reduced in price the lives , of these people would' be heavenly coml pared to what tlfey 1 are now, and there i is really no reason why the colony should . continue to suffer under the existing conr ditions." The^feraiice to coal ie not ■ particularly happy, for the State coal mine ' hasnot yet been justified by cheaper coal, . and there is complaint that if the experiment id to be a success there must be local , depots for seHing it and distributing it retail. And that ie a very big order. The .proposed meat and fish shops is hardly likely to be seriously proposed to Par- ! liament. But, nevertheless, it is a startling fact that in a country such as New Zealand meat and fish and also bread are all veTy dear, and that the cost of living i is unduly high to poor people, especially the class of people to whom the Premier refers. We cannot believe that it is dtie to rings and combines. In a free.couni toy, especially -in a country where these articles of food can be or ought to be produced cheaply ) and in -which there are ' thousands of acres of land yet available r for cultivation and grazing, tb/sre is no . possibility of rings and combines control- • ling prices. Still, there is undoubtedly somethng wrong somewhere, and Parlament could occupy its time worse than by making an enquiry through one of its committees into the whole auestion.