PEACE AND PRODUCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 22 November 1918, Page 4

PEACE AND PRODUCE.

Under this heading the Mercantile* Grazette offers the opinion that prices of produce will keep up for a year after the war, but that there will then be a drop. It gives the following reasons : — The war 'has impoverished th e peoples of Europe. There is the heavy burden, of debt; there is the los 3of capital due to the destruction of buildings and plant, shipping, etc. Britain is our best customer, and the national aebt of Orreat Britain is staggering; the interest alone on th« debt will amount to about £320,000,000 per annum, or 50----per cent, more than the total revenue in 1913-14, the financial year prior tothe outbreak of Jbostitities. It may be urged that the greater portion of the debt as owing to th e people of the United Kingdom, which is tru o enough, and that the interest will be paid to the people but it will first be extracted. from the people by v ay of taxation and returned to them by way of interest, and the national debt will therefore represent dead capital until the principal sum is repaid. Britain has under stress of war learned to produce more foodstuffs, to economise in various,ways tolive on rations, and to do with'margarine instead of butter What effect these changes will have, no one can say Ihen, again, an 'immediate effort >»• I bound to be made throughout Europe to provide foodstuffs'—such, for instance as gram—and no doubt .there will be a •large measure of success in this. Tho reduced mcom a of th c peoples and the greater efforts at producing foodstuffs must tell against us. and the values or our products must fail not merely to the pre-war level but possibly lower. What, then, is the du +,y of the people of .^ Zealand? Will it be safe for us to idle away the year's respite, enjoying ourprosperity and neglecting our opportunities:' The answer is obvious. It will t , our imperative duty to take stock j of the situation and make provision for- ! the times of stress that must follow after the close of the great war. We must greatly increase the output of our products in order that the fall in values may not be seriously felt; if we could double the volume of our exports, then if prices fell 50 per cent, we should still" get th 6 present return. To double the volume of our exports is what the Americans term "a large order," but we can meet the difficulty by economising If we can increase bur exports by.----25 per cent, and economise to an extent to represent another 25 per cent, our object will be very nearly secured. If" we neglect this obvious duty then there will be trouble of a serious character.