WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 3108, 29 December 1921, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE CLOSING YEAR. ANXIOUS TIMES AHEAD. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Doc. 27. The year is closing wilh no very bright prospects before any section, of the community. The producers, with the exception of the wheal-growers, tire threatened with a. period ol low prices; the business men are faced by difficult financial problems, concerning both themselves and their customers, and the workers are, menaced by n slackened demand for the services they have to sell. The whole community, in short, is confronted by the adverse, operation of certain economic laws which are now talcing 101 l for the violence done them during the war and the early days ol peace. The producers probably are. in the hardest plight of all. The Government has been buoying them up wilh predictions of an early recovery of prices, a lowering of shipping charges and a heller system of marketing, Fm ail these things still are mostly in the air. The improvement, in the price of wool is more Ilian counter-balanced by ihe sharp decline in the price of butler and ihe continued stagnation in the meal market. At the moment, at any rale, the lot of the producer is not a happy one. business men ot all degrees are. snllering from the decreased earning power of the producers, many of them severely. With big declines in land values and in slock values the business men have been compelled to take hold of propositions I hey would not have, touched in normal limes. What will he the outcome of all this it is impossible lo say. There are plenty of people arguing ilia' high land values arc at the hoi loin of the whole trouble and (hal everything will be well with the community when they are reduced to a reasonable level. Fnt the process of reduction, on the scale suggested by many of these reformers, would involve in most cases the extinction of the interests of the nrcsent, owners and a search tor a new set ol producers, A REVOLUTIONARY PROPOSAL. The alternative to this drastic proceeding suggested lo Ihe Government by a, deputa I ion, which described itself as respectable, was that land values should he substantially reduced in ihe interests ol the present holders and that the Slate and the mortgagees should hear the cost of the operation. This, of course, would mean repudiation of a kind that public opinion would not tolerate nor -Mr .Massey approve. The bare suggestion, however, gives some idea of the situation the business men are handling. As a. matter of fact, in many cases they already have placed themselves in the position of bearing all the risk of “carrying on’’ iu accordance with the Prime Minis ter’s appeal. The interest of hundreds o! producers in iheir farms has been practically extinguished by the drop in values. They are remaining on Iheir holdings as tlit representatives of the mortgagees, and, F do the mortgagees justice, they arc remaining. in moste instances, on condition: that are by no means il-liberal. Fill talk of repudiation, which challenges the very .basis of financial and commercial morality, is wholly reprehensible. THE WORKERS’ CASE. Amidst all this bother and confusion it b extremely dillicuii to ascertain exactly hov, the workers’ case stands. Thai, Ihe nun who toiled with their hands laird passably well during the war, no one acquainted will the facts can honestly deny. Their wage: were high and their conditions entirely tolerable, while the service demanded Iron them was not exacting. They should have no grievance against any otner section ol (lie comiminiiy on these scores. Fill tin position has ciiangcd very much since tin days when both money and employment were abundant and the value, of service wa, not carelnlly counted. Producers and bnsi ness men have bad to look very closely into their affairs and many of them haw discovered Fiat the, cost ot such service: as they receive is more than the service: are worth and more titan they can all old There must be a readjustment, somewhere. Either there must be. better services ot lower wages. Employers, almost, wit lion', exception, would prefer the lormer, bin it is lor t lie workers to choose. On I licit decision will depend greatly the speed will: which normal conditions are restored.