“A VICIOUS CIRCLE”

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10536, 12 March 1920, Page 5

“A VICIOUS CIRCLE”

INCREASED PRODUCTION ONLY WAY OUT. PRIME MINISTER’S VIEHyS. The Government wanted to meet them, stated tho Prime Minister to the master bakers’ • deputation on Wednesday. He assured them that the* Government did not want ■to do anything unfair, but we seemed to have got into a sort .of, vicious circle, as in most countries. Prices went up in one business, and then in another; and so it went on all round to all businesses. Ho knew that nothing would stop it except increased production; 'hut that, unfortunately, did not depend on this country alone. He thought that in Now Zealand we had done our share in that direction. He did not wonder at people grumbling in regard to the increase in prices, especially since tho Armistice. He did not suggest that increased profits were tho cause of increased prices. He knew better than that, but what they had got to do—what the Board of Trade was aiming at — was to satisfy tho public that profiteering was not going further than they could possibly help, and that they were going to stop it at every opportunity.