COST OF LIVING.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 6, Issue 243, 13 October 1915, Page 6

COST OF LIVING.

Editor, "Tho Maoriland ■ Worker,", —Why does not tho Government pass a Bill requiring every' butter factory to put away a percentage of its output at tho flush of tho season; at the price, it is selling to the exporter, so that butter will not riso above 2d. more than tho summer price, aud fix a fair paying price for tho farmer; and when butter rises aboro that prico tho | Government tako half tho riso in esI port duty, this' money to be car-mark-ed to build roads and bridges in the back blocks. . The meat question could be dealt with in the same way. The Government could fix a fair selling price and half of all abovo that they could tako in export duty. When you think of tlio prico of meat iu'this country at tho present timo and how its selling price has driven tho land values up out of reach of the .small, man,.and the differcuco of price* now and the 1880 values, it makes you conclude that if Seddon and Mackenzie, wheu they cut up the .Cheviot estate, had put a clause in tho Land Bill that the land would not riso abovo tho value of tho five shilling sheep, and that. on every riso abovo that amount tbo Government should tako half tho export price, wo would lie drawing 7s, 6d. export duty, and tho farmer would .'be making 7s. (3d. profit off. his' sheep. The increase that has taken place in tho land values sinco 1880 is staggering. This might bo illustrated iv this way. A man bought a block of land at the then value, we will say, of iiIOOO. When the sheep went'to 10s., along camo the land agent and said to him, "Smith, you are on a good wicket. 1 can get you 12,000 for your land and 10s' each for your sheep." Tlio man buying it, instead of paying interest on £1,000, had to pay interest. on £2,000; aud at tho present time for that same land, taking tho value of tb& sheep at 20 shillings, ho is paying interest on-'£4,000. _£ow. -h docs not tako 20 shillings to produce a, sheep, but the capitalisation that has gone on has driven tho producing expenses up so that the. farmer going on the laud has not '■) XV}'y leVe 9 "HTOih. pf profit. Wo cannot grow wheat but it tho land values had been kept at iivo shillings we could havo grown it. But tho capital value of the land has-been driven up to such an extent that it does not pay tho farmer to grow wheat unless ho bought his land about 1880, becauso if ho goes into tho market to buy land nuw ho has to pay tho valuo created br sheep and butter prices, so'when a i-iisiiv arises wo aro left With a, short-' n"o-of bur-staple-.food. ISHMAEL ROBBIE.