NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20642, 14 August 1930, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

WEST INDIAN SUGAR CRISIS. A' deputation * consisting of tho Archbishop of the West Indies and tho bishops of Barbados and Guiana recently interviewed Lord Passfield, Secretary of State for the Colonies, .in London, to inform liirn of the plight of tho negro populations dependent upon the sugar industry in (he islands. The deputation urged that the collapse of the industry meant that the unsatisfactory social and economic condition of'tho negroes would be made worse, and they appealed for Government assistance to put the industry on a stable basis. Lord Passfield, replying to the deputation, said the Government was well aware'of the gravity of the situation and realised 'its special responsibilities toward the negro and East Indian populations, who had been brought to tho West Indies through British agency. At the same time,' and having regard to the existence of other industries seriously depressed both at home and. in the colonies, he regretted that he could hold out no hope that it would bo possible to grant any subsidy to the West Indian sugar industry. On the other hand, the Government was inviting tho Governors of the sugar colonies to consider how far the situation which is likely to arise can be dealt with by means of employment on public works. LOW PRICES AND HIGH TARIFFS. Observing that commercial depression is world-wide, a circular issued by tho Bank of New South Wales, spys that people in every Continent are offering masses of goods and all at. bedrock prices, but men cannot buy from others till they sell their own. One obvious bar to the exchange of these abundant goods is the universal levying of high and increasing customs duties. Goods that are cheap where they are sold f.o.b. are dear where they are bought, duty paid, and this in spito of low freights. Governments are the greediest middlemen of all. To pay interest on their war and post-war debts they must needs tax whatever they can, and their levies at the wharves make British textiles dear in Australia, Australian wheat and apples dear in Germany, German fertilisers and electrical plant, American motor-cars and petrol dear everywhere else. Cut their prices as producers may, such goods at landed-costiplus-duty are out of would-bo consumers' reach. In league with governments that must tax from financial necessity are patriots and manufacturers, filled with nervous zeal to make their countries selfsufficient lest, or in order that, those countries may find themselves short of essential goods as in time of war. Thus, through need of revenue and love of local industries, tariff barriers are stopping the exchange of cheap goods and '.'beggaring my neighbour" all round tho globe. THE DEMAND FOR GOLD. Chief among the creditors entitled to heavy interest-payments stands tho Government of the United States of America, the bank's circular continues. They maintain a tariff around their great homo market with such affection for its lusty corporations that other nations are hampered from paying in goods the interest they owe. As a result gold is in unusual demand to settle international debts. Now that almost all the world has got back to some sorb, of a gold standard the hpavicr call for , gold as a means of making payment, to an international creditor that won't take goods, has had much to do with tho recent general fall in prices. Other reasons have accentuated tho call for gold, such as the ambition of Paris to oust London as a monetary centre and eagerness to keep assets in "liquid" form and to shift them where they can earn best interest. Such pressure to find exports and gather gold inevitably raises the value of gold, i.e., forces down the price of all other exported goods. The years sinco 1925 havo witnessed a fall in prices stated in gold of a severity and duration unequalled in time of peace. To a brief survey of conditions in Australia, the writer adds: —Must we grow more wheat, wool, sugar, butter and so forth for a market offering such low prices? Assuredly wo must. Being a small country we cannot give the world marching orders in monetary matters. Being inter : national providers to a' unique degree we must meet the market or see others take our business Thus no sound policy 13 open, to Australia than that of increasing our skill and lowering our unit-costs until the prices we can get are profitable. We must make do with what we can get.