ECONOMIC CRISIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20978, 15 September 1931, Page 6

ECONOMIC CRISIS.

PRODUCERS' POSITION. " ON EDGE OF PRECIPICE," GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S VIEWS. Declaring that the primary producers of New Zealand stood on the edge of a financial precipice, and that if they fell manufacturing, trading and professional interests would alike fall with them, the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, in a speech in Wellington last Friday evening, made a strong plea for mutual goodwill in price fixation of all commodities, particularly of food and clothing. His Ex. cellency urged also a closer co-operation between all branches of farming and manufacturing industries. Speaking at a gathering of the Wellington Commercial Travellers and Warehousemen's Association, His Excellency Baid the world was topsy-turvy, particularly in the sphere of industry and commerce. It was in days like these that all that was best in the British race showed itself, and its incomparable backbone invariably proved its salvation. In a crisis it displayed those valuable qualities of equanimity, resourcefulness, practical human sympathy and constructive progress. "Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.'' We must change with the times or be left behind in the race. This applied with overpowering force to modern trade. The Road to Salvation, It had become axiomatic that the economic existence of this Dominion depended upon the prosperity of its primary producers. To-day they stood on the edge of a financial precipice, and if they fell —but they would not—manufacturing, trading and professional interests would alike fall with them. They could and would ultimately contribute to theii own salvation by better production, better organisation, and more scientific methods. But for the moment their welfare was intimately wrapped up with tht extent of the benefit that the trading community could, without serious detriment to its stability, confer upon the general community. The greatest need of the day waa incontrovertibly the due reflection of thf initial value of the products of (he land and of the factory in their price a: charged to the public, and this applied with special force to such necessaries oi life as food and clothing. There was to-day no scope for any large margin oi trade profit on such commodities, His Ex cellency said. Any attempt to securt it, whether by individuals or trade combines, threatened the stability not only of trade and industry, but of the whole fabric of society and ordered government. Needs of the Consumer. Politicians were often blamed unreasonably for most of the country's ills, but the most difficult and insoluble problems of statesmen to-day were due to conditions which trading and financial interests by internal organisation could largely ameliorate, if not actually remedy, far more effectively than any Government could do. Indeed governmental intervention, although sometimes essential for the protection of the public, was often the least desirable method of solving economic problems. Not only was it imperative to-day to reduce substantially by better organisation the often wide difference of commodity prices between producer and consumer, continued Lord Bledisloe, but also to supply the consumer with . what he wanted, of good intrinsic quality, even tf his wants appeared to be unreasonable.