AS THE WORLD WAGS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14706, 5 June 1920, Page 8

AS THE WORLD WAGS.

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" The writer as "not aware whether the. Hon. D. H. Guthrie, Minister for Lands, is an. interesting- and attractive speaker generally, fbnbjie made an interesting speech-to the i?armers'_ Union 'delegates-;at a banquet at Palnaereton -North/Inst week. Be was brimful of optimism respecting the futuie of New Zealand, aiid w r as certain that with attention to -business and economy the : finances of New Zealand would come out on top. Parenthetically it mav be i remarked that while 'Mr Massey, whois i Finance Minister, gives-more than orai* nary care to business, he dofes ilot exeri cise the economy that Mr Guthrie up- , holds as New Zea- ' land's However. Mr Guthrie said nothing about this, but he did I say that during the war the Government had raised, in New Zealand the huge; sum /of £79,000j000, : while the loans raised in Britain totalled £26,,000,000, a grand total- of £105,000,000. That-is'the cost of the war to New' Zea-. free deposits in the banks _of the Dominion amounted to £24,000,000, but these now stood at £50,000,000. _ How, he queried, had New Zealand arrived at its present strong financial position? In 1910 the value of New Zealand wool stood at eight millions, but in 1919 it had reached "nineteen millions, frozen meat had increased from three millions to nine millions, butter from one million to three millions, and cheese from one million to seven millions: The general trade of the Dominion over the same period had increased by forty-four millions, while if the single year of 19181919 were taken there was an increase of thirty millions over 1910, and the excess of exports over iriiports was £2l.- | .963,2311 The figures are remarkable for their magnitude, and this much may. be 1 said for the- producers, that had the •market been an open one the amount would have stood in the neighborhood of 'nearly double. The excess over the figures quoted "by-Mr Guthrie was New Zealand's gift to the Imperial Government. But —und there is an imperiously big "but" to be taken into consideration—the Imperial Government made all the necessary arrangements for the shipment of our produce, and but for that "half of it might never have found its way to the markets of the Mother Country, and we would have been the poorer by over-production and the available ...market for it. Australia is a big country, but its wealth per head of the population is much less than that of New Zealand, and in the same ratio it made nothing like the money out- of the war that New Zealand made. It borrowed from the Imperial Government between three and four hundred millions, and had it been able to emulate New Zealand it should have borrowed from its own people about- four hundred millions, instead of the small siim it actually raised locally. The interest on the seventy-nine millions New Zealand borrowed from its own people remains in the Dominion, and will be spent in New Zealand, but the interest- on the money we borrowed outside goes away and is lost to us. New Zealand has an investment account of £15.180,250, which may be assumed to be the surpluses remitted to London during the war, and if nothing has happened to .this sum in the meantime the Government should use it and the proceeds of a local loan of eleven millions to entirely pay off the Imperial Government. The fifteen millions will be earning interest in London, and thus it would cost us nothing,' but the Imperial Government- may be driven to asking us, like it has asked Australia, to repay it. There is no money value that can repay us for the lives of New Zealand's young manhood lost in the war. but apart from that irreparable loss New Zealand has heaped up a fabulous fortune out of the great war.

Mr Alassey, says the commandeer ■of our frozen meat has come to an end. the Imperial Government declining to renew it. The shipping companies at the same time, through their representatives at the producers' meeting, say they are able to provide for the shipment of ten million carcases of frozen meat during the coming year. As New Zealand's output is seven million carenses per year we need not feel alarmed at the outlook on the score of getting away all the produce New Zealand exports. What may agitate the minds of the producers "is the price the produce may fetch when it reaches the markets of the world, wherever they may be. But, if we argue from the basis of prices in 1910, when the produce of the Dominion stood at figures that showed n handsome return to its owners, we need not, even on this score, feel any marked agitation lest the prices,, for some years to come, should show a slump that will cause depreciation to figures below the level of that year. New Zealand can afford to write off one-lialf the prices at present -prevailing., and yet show a return considerably in advance of those ruling in 1910. Wool had appreciated two and a-half times, although in the open market it had risen three and -a-half times; "butter had gone up three times, although on the open markets Its position stood at over four times; and cheese had made the astonishing advance of seven times in volume, but not in price. The productivity of the countries of Europe and Britain is not equal to pulling down the prices to the level of 1910 for some years to come, so that there is some encouragement for the New Zealand producer to bend all his energies in the» direction of producing more and still more. We are lagging, it is true, in production, for we have made our riches out .of increased prices, and not' 'out of "incraesed production. We produce- in quantity no more than we did in 1910, although the land' has been sub-divided, : and the workers upon it- are more numerous than they were in that year. The needle points to reduced prices all round, for the very pimple reason that the consumers cannot pay the enhanced prices of the present" day. And even here there is little cause' for alarm, for one-half the enhanced prices is due" to nothing short of robbery, which in these days goes by the name of profiteering. Profiteering has extended it-self all over the civilised world, and is unblushing in its efforts to rob the helpless and needy. There are a number of things that have" to be taken into account before the producer feels-the effect of any great reduction in prices.

The climate of Queensland is tropical. and the of Queensland , are also tropical, from which it may bo surmised that the electors are also a trifle, torrid, for the politicians could iiovcr linve. become politicians had the electors been o£ a different mind. During the past few years Queensland lias been what is termed the Bolshevist State of the great Commonwealth. This explanation is necessary because by no other concatenation of circumstances could the Russian-like tangle of its .finances be accounted for. "When other States were wending along the even tenor of their way, and making both ends meet in a more or less satisfactory manner, Queensland was picked out as the only State that consistently pinned its faith to deficits. Its finances came demoralised, not perhaps quite as ! demoralised as those of , Russia, but that probably is simply a question of [degree,- for -on a population basis Queensland would bo overrunning .the constable as fast as that functionary's legs would go. The Bolshevikisation (what a word!) of Queensland is apparently a true bill, inasmuch as Mr Theodore, who is Premier of the State, is announced to be'about to pay a visit to Russia, where he .will be the guest of the Soviet Government, and there lie will endeavor to extract and assimilate at first hand all the mysteries of high arid "low* finance for which Lenin has. made bis autocratic rule .more or less famous or infamous. Jlr Theodore is no ordinary man. When he travels he is guarded with the same • care and attention to his< personal safety a* if he were King Koko Knut' of a Central African Empire of Squalor. The Sydney.. papers say that he recently journeyed' to England on an official mission, with n. secretary, detective and a. valet. The secretary and detective .might have been necessary, for uneasy lies the head that wears a crown, even if it is a Cardboard one; but the valet! Perhaps Lenin has,half a dozen, and Mr Theodore, under the circumstances. should'surely be- entitled to one. That, at all events, is the least number chat he could have, as ordinary valets cannot undertake, in segments-; to put on: the spats of their masters., or .brush their auburn locks in the ; same, disjointed fashion. Bolshevism, | with a lac-kev in attendance, is . a new

niaking* 'aß mbn equal. it may bo „t|ig 'tincft'-only'tra undestrawding that Jack is as good as his., master, and that no groat Statu event -must be considered wit-naut a -confer--encfif between, the Premier, the secretary; detective, and- .valet. All this,. however, is .■.'.■ merely surmise, tor the ; ■•valet'may ia reality be the .governing, head ot • the quadruplfce, and Mr •Theodore only an adjuncty and an jn--consequential one at that. Liberty, > equality, and : fraternity, may, for- all i that has been said by the, Sydney ; papjirSj .be <as firmlv,'established in ihe four persons who travel together the. expressive embodiment of Qu c ell e 1 atl a' s regal splendor just .as truly asyii one were a Czar and all the rest- his menials. Queensland, is a fine -copntry to be out of, with its deficits and want of employment.