THE" SLUMP" IN WOOL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 22 May 1908, Page 5

THE" SLUMP" IN WOOL.

ITS POSSIBLE EFFECTS.

[press association.! GISBORNE, lfy# 22. During the hearing of the waterside workers' dispute before the Arbitration Court, Mr Waxen, representing Nelson Bros.' freezing works^ submitted there was no evidence before the Court to justify the demands of the workers, and asked the Court to give full consideration to the Repression that was likely to be felt all over the Dominion, owing to the heavy fall in the value of wool and the unsettled state ,of the meat market and general tightness in | the money market restricting financial I accommodation. The whole Dominion, he said, was at present face to face with a phase of financial depression which will affect the whole community, but more especially tnose engaged in pastoral and industrial pursuits. "For the past five or six years times had been prosperous," he continued, "and the workers had received material increases in wages and more favorable conditions of labor. At the same time, this present phase of depression has %o be faced, and it behoves everyone to use more than, ordinary care. It is only logical and just that the workers, having participated in the prosperity during the past few years, should share with the employers to some extent in the bad times which are now imminent." Speaking at the Mayoral banquet, Mr A. F. Kennedy said the recent drop in wotfl had cost the districts surrounding Gisborne fully £220,000. However, he was confident the district could stand the loss, though a cautious policy would have to be followed and expenditure curtailed. Land values would obviously be affected, and it would perhaps be a good thing to get back to values based on average market prices for a series of years, instead of on the maximum rate, as had been the case latterly.