A LLOYD GEORGE WANTED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16808, 18 March 1915, Page 6

A LLOYD GEORGE WANTED.

The discussion at tho meeting of the Spreydon • Borongh Council concerning the cost of the staff of life may not add to the sum of knowledge on that subject, but should serve to emphasise the popular sentiment. Councillor Sykes expressed a. substantial truth in saying that New Zealand sadly needs a Lloyd George—a man "who could proposo a feasible scheme and see that it was carried out in its entirety." But instead of a statesman like Mr Lloyd George, New Zealand is governed by Mr Massey. He has not devised a feasible scheme. He armed himself with all the necessary authority t to prevent the developments that everybody is deploring, but apparently had not the will or the courage to use it. The resolution urging the Government to fix a reasonable price for wheat and take over the flourmills and bakeries is comprehensive enough, but it is a little late in the day for such measures. The simplest plan would have been to determine maximum prices for wheat, flour and bread, as the Legislature anticipated would be done when it passed the Regulation of Trade and Commerce Act. If the price of wheat had been kept at 5s 3d! per bushel, as it was fixed in one proclamation, not a grower in New Zealand could' reasonably have complained, and tho majority would bave been well satisfied. That is a much higher price than had prevailed for at least twenty years. Even in 1907, in which year the Liberals are accused of having " complacently" watched wheat prices rise to a great altitude, the average was but 3s 9d per bushel according to Dr J. W. M'llwraith's "Course of Prices in New Zealand." The moderate shortage in the supply of wheat is no justification for the veiy large rise in price, which is relatively greater than the increase in Britain, whose supplies have mostly to be imported under the serious handicaps of a state of war. If New Zealand had a Lloyd George in Mr Massey's place, it is a moderate estimate that the public would be saving about £2OOO a day in its bread bill.