COMPARISONS OF PRICES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 9 June 1927, Page 8

COMPARISONS OF PRICES

YEARNTNGB AND EARNINGS

Some striking comparisons of prices obtained by New Zealand for primary products sent abroad are given by the •'Otago Daily Times." The prices farmers have been receiving for their products have not been maintained at. the level that was reached by thorn five years ago. The prices that were then realised were, however, exceptional. It was not reasonably to be expected that they would not fall as in fact they did, very heavily indeed in the following year. The fact remains, however, that 'in 1923, 1924, and 1925 a rise over all, in prices of our primary products, was experienced. The recorded value of the exports of domestic value in 1923 was £43,371.908. If the prices had been those of 1922, the value would have been £36,962,436. There was a gain, therefore,'in that year of £8,409,472. In .1924 the recorded' value of tTie exports was £51,920,828. At the prices of the preceding year, the value would have been £45,396,647, so that there was a gain of £6,524,181. The comparison for the next year was less favourable. Yet, the value of the exported produce in 1925, which was, £54,521,031. was £2,741,677 more than it would have been at the prices in 1924. And if, as Mr Hawken considers, the prospects for -thejtwo, principal exporting industries' -are' better ; now than they lia.ve been for some time past, it should bo only a matter of a comparatively short per'jM.';b'ef6fe.:the/disappearance .of. ,the>. clouds which . are at present causing some anxiety. Mr. Hawken placed his finger on the spot when he said that it was expenditure that had to be watched. The safest mle of economy, concludes the "Times," has been laid down, in epigrammatic terms by a Canadian paper, as the keeping of the yearnings within the 'earnings.