REGULATING FOOD PRICES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13456, 5 June 1907, Page 7

REGULATING FOOD PRICES.

MR. MILLAR'S SCHEME.

WAGES DETERMINE PRICES.

[bt telegraph —own correspondent.]

Wellington, Tuesday. Much material for debate was thrown out at Dunedin last week by the Hon. J. A- Millar i (Minister for Labour and Marine), when he | mentioned to a Star representative that he thought a board of commerce should be set up to report whenever it became apparent that undue prices were being charged for the commodities of. life. The board should advise the Government as to what steps ought Ito be taken, the report to be presented to Parliament before being acted on. That was the course being pursued in America where trusts had been created, and it appeared to him better machinery should be provided to deal with such matters before they did become an established fact in this colony.

"The Labour party has agitated for the nationalisation of the ways and means of giving the people their bread and butter and clothing, and is a strong denouncer of the trusts. Their leaders have cried out against combinations, and have called upon the Government to devise means to! prevent the classes from extortionately exploiting the masses; on the other side commerical men hesitate to admit the possibility or practicability of State regulation of prices. While I sympathise with the object which Mr. Millar has in view," said Mr. Harold Beauchamp to-day to a Post. reporter, ," I am distinctly of opinion that no board will ever be able to satisfactorily adjust or arrange prices, inasmuch as prices are invariably affected by the inexorable 4 law of supply arid demand. It reduces itself to that; it cannot be viewed from any other standpoint. So far as flour is concerned, that is an article which is so. vital to the well-being of the people that I would suggest that when that article attained a certain figure, which, in the opinion of thoroughly independent parties, might be considered excessive, the Government should have the right to remit the duty for the time being, and: so let us draw from markets where the same stringent conditions might not obtain. If this were done at the present time I have no doubt we would be able to force the hands of those' who are quite right, from their own standpoint, in taking \ advantage of the law of supply and demand. So far as wheat and flour are concerned we always have California, Canada, and Australia, at our door so to speak. During normal times I quite believe that our farming community should be protected by the duty that now exists. My suggestion only refers to abnormal times when wheat has fallen into the hands of the speculator, and the farmers and producers are not likely to benefit by the high figures now ruling. This privilege of remitting the duty should be exercised by the Government only with great circumspection, or the system would be open to abuse. A board should make inquiries and recommendations, and on the strength of these the Government should act. I think a weapon of this kind should be used only . in- dealing with the necessaries of life. Ido not agree with the view of some people that., in order to regulate the prices of these necessaries the industries concerned should be nationalised."

A large merchant declared that the consumers themselves regulated prices. The people had a voice, and they could use it in municipal and general elections if they desired the kind of legislation foreshadowed by the Hon. J. A. Millar. He contended that the Government of this colony had already gone in for the humanities as an ex-, periment-'in legislation,- and had put history on one side. He held 1 that the price of labour fixed the prices of commodities, and the Government had already fixed the price of labour. The Labour party had a monopoly, or desired a monopoly, in labour; why therefore should not producers and dealers combine? The workers wanted to keep their cake and eat it at the same time. Labour, he concluded, accounted for 80 to 90 per cent, of the prices of goods when the matter was worked down to bedrock.