The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1930. THE FALL IN PRICES.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 July 1930, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JULY 12, 1930. THE FALL IN PRICES.

Is there any reasonable possibility that the fall in prices which has taken place during the last four or five years has reached its lowest point; are there any ineans of retarding tne continued inclination for commodities to recede? The principal cause, which has brought about a general fall, as we have said, remarks the Mercantile Gazette, is overproduction in all countries ot everything which man requires. Since tbe War terminated a greater and wider application of science to production has taken place than in any ten years preceding. Newer and quicker transport lias been invoked lor moving manufactured articles Irotn tin* workshop to the consumer. Electricity as a motive power has boon substituted for coal, new methods have been invoked to cheapen the cost, new machinery has been devised minimising manual labour to an ever increasing

extent. Rationalisation Ims tended to mass production, and all the while costs have fallen from the first moment the raw material is dealt will) and through all tiie stages of manufacture and distribution. The result lias been'that as cos's of production have decreased, manufacturers have passed on fo their customers the benefit of the reductions which have been made. The recession in cost lias brought wholesale prices down to the point at which they now stand, eighteen to twenty per cent, above those which were current immediately prior to the war. In England where there is no artificial fixing of wage by a Government tribunal retail prices are still sixty per cent, above prewar parity—much about the same as they are here—and there is much complaint that the increased productivity is not being distributed among the community as to effect this lower retail prices should have been charged. Itds of little benefit, reducing wholesale costs if the retailors consider there is no corresponding fluty upon them to encourage consumption by proportionate reductions of price. There should he no obstruction to the free passage of commodities from the maker to the consumer, and if sto ks -are held up in manufacturers’ hands by the retailer not co-operating in all measures to bring about an increased demand and thus assist to release the goods produced at the factories a further fall in their price must be made. All are in the Same boat, and if those at the top falinot dispose of their stocks there

is no alternative but to effer them at a loss or close down their works. In this Dominion where the finger of the Government is in every pie, whore a shopkeeper must pay a fixed minimum wage to any person he employs, and where men are encouraged by the working conditions in force to interest themselves as little as possible in their employer’s business, whore even, the unemployed will not affect work unless they receive the Arbitration Court Award wage, there is no possibility of tilings getting anv hotter The necessities of life remain dear and must do so until a change is made. We cannot say that the high prices for everything in the Dominion is a bar to productivity at the. source, because the secondary industries, tied up ns they are by G.pvcrnmr.'it in ferferench, all rt'ong the line, arc unable.to expand by reason of the. cost, and must he protected by high tariffs without which they could not, under present conditions, exist for twelve months. Commodities have not in overseas countries yet reached their lowest point, when they do those who produce them will be compelled to find outlets for their surplus and will push them in any other market. This cannot fail to make things more difficult for our local manufacturers who will require the Government to assist bv conceding more and more protection.