PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Thirty-ninth Year of Publication ESTABLISHED 1875 Manawatu Daily Times FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1914.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 12803, 29 May 1914, Page 4

PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Thirty-ninth Year of Publication ESTABLISHED 1875 Manawatu Daily Times FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1914.

EVERY year a noteworthy feature of the Conference of the

Wellington District Farmers' Lnion is the address delivered by the President, Mr J. G. Wilson, formerly Member of Parliament. for this district, and now

m a prominent position on the Board of Agriculture. It is always interesting and to the point, and deals very ably with subjects of importance to those engaged in the primary producing industries. On this occasion, as might be gathered from the summary we published, it is most hopeful in tone, and it must be acknowledged that this confi-

dence in the future is justified by the facts of the present. It would be observed that the President referred in more than one portion of his address to the value of co-operation not only iu production, but in buying and selling. But there is much to be said on both sides of this subject and farmers will act wisely if they exercise caution. While it is true that the prices of their produce are regulated by the London market it is also true

that thfi local market is not to be despised. There are bigger things to be considered by farmers than the saving of a fewpence at the possible loss of as many pounds, and there is still wisdom in the old motto "Live and let live." We should prefer to see the Farmers' Union as a body taking a livelier interest in political principles and also to sec it take a more determined stand in regard to them—of course without allying with any political party, for the reason that none of these parties has any settled political principles. The farmer's pocket is much more injuriously affected by bad legislation and a vicious fiscal system than it is by any trader or combination of traders, who for the most part give fair value for what they receive.

THE writer of the commercial article in the Wellington Post makes an interesting reference to the Australian money market. He says:—"From private correspondence and from other sources it is gathered that money is still very abundant in Australia, and this fact may explain the seeming equanimity with which increased State taxation is regarded; also the other fact, which it is difficult to explain, apart from the generally high level of pastoral and dairy products, that extra taxation on land, in New South Wales at any rate, has not had the up' effects upon large estates that was anticipated and did not in many instances actually take place. The large sum of Australian money (all won from the soil) still available for investment has had a decidedly weakening effect upon the Commonwealth money market. But it has not so "influenced the financial state of affairs in this country. In Australia, however, as in New Zealand, so far as one can ascertain the facts, there is no encouragement given by bankers to speculators in suburban properties acquired for cutting up into suitable blocks for re-selling at substantial profit, if not at boom prices: In New South Wales, however, there is no mortgage tax, which in New Zealand the investor has to pay. This enables, so it is argued, the Australian borrower to obtain his supplies at about x /i per cent under the rates mortgagors are asked to pay for accommodation in this country—a factor that has to be borne in mind in comparing Australian and New Zealand rates of interest."