THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1915. THE WAR AND PRICES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16339, 23 March 1915, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1915. THE WAR AND PRICES.

It is somewhat to be regretted that the various local bodies and trade organisations by -which resolutions, occasionally couched in violent terms, have been passed protesting against the increase in the price of living have not, in any case, suggested any practicable method of effecting the remedy that is desired. It is the easiest thing in tho world to allege the existence of a wrong and to call upon someone else to redress the wrong, but it is not such a simple matter to point to the appropriate remedy, and the protesting .councils and unions have really shirked the onus of showing how the public may be relieved of the burden of increased prices. It is of course apparent that the increased price of foodstuffs does constitute a burden upon the community at the present time. It is equally apparent and distinctly unfortunate that the burden falls most heavily upon* the section of the community that is least able to bear it. Were it. not for the fact that the most poorly-paid classes of wage-earners are subjected to a disproportionate, hardship in the increase in the price of the necessaries of life, there would be very little excuse for the resolutions of protest that are being daily reported. To all other than the members of these most poorly-paid classes the rise in the cost of living involves in a country like New Zealand the payment of a merely trifling price for the conditions of security and comfort in which they are living at a time -when their country is engaged in the most terrible war in all human history. Their circumstances are in reality less onerous than they had, when the -war broke out, any cause to anticipate they would become. Of the fact that the conditions of. existence, even although the Empire is in a state of war, are falling lightly upon a very large section of the populations of the towns in the dominion, on which the stress of war, as reflected in the prices of foodstuffs, bears most severely, there is abundant evidence. The record of business, the attendance at places of amusement, the appearance presented in the streets are all indicative of the ease with which a siderable proportion, at any rate, of the inhabitants of the towns is meeting the extraordinary situation created by the war. But the pressure of high prices upon the section of the community that is least able to submit to it reasonably excites concern. To the extent to which the resolutions of protest are expressive of this concern they may be accorded public sympathy. If, moreover, any practicable method were proposed whereby the most humble classes of the people might be relieved of the pressure of high prices, which falls upon them in a degree that is disproportionately severe, it would be entitled to sympathetic consideration. The protestors, however, merely rail at the Government, as though it were responsible, and clamour for "prompt and decisive action" or for some heroic measures.

The principal ground for complaint is found in the price of bread. It is completely ignored that this is due to an economic circumstance over -which no Government has any control. The shortage in the supply of wheat would, even if there had been no war, have raised, the price of bread to

a level approaching that which has lately been reached. It was not so many years ago that a similar shortage produced a somewhat similar result, and there was no war at that time. To fix the price of wheat at a price below that which the ■commodity realises under competitive conditions in the market would be disastrous. Tho effect would be to throw wheat lands out of cultivation and to cause the farmer to turn his attention to other productive methods. In this way the evil that is now the cause of complaint would be aggravated. The acquisition by the Govornment of the whole of tho wheat crops would, unless it had been effected at the market price, have been similarly futile. And unless the Government could have bought up the wheat crops at less than the market price, there would, in the eyes of the protestors, have been no virtue in its intervention. The fixing of maximum prices for wheat and the acquisition of wheat supplies by the Imperial Government- are both expedients, that were suggested at Home with the object of mitigating the hardships consequent upon the increase in the price of some of the necessaries of life. Tho view which Mr Asquith expressed with reference to these suggestions may be quoted as not wholly inapplicable to the circumstances of the dominion :

It has been suggested that the Government should fix maximum prices—an experiment which the German Government has made with most disastrous results. Tho only result in that country has been to lead to evasion, confusion, and frustration of the purposes in view. We have been invited to buy up <tho whole available supply of wheat in tho world and necessary commodities, and to commandeer the stocks of our farmers here at homo. I am not speaking , with any prejudice _of an old-fashioned political economist, but as a practical man, when I say that I do not believe that steps of that kind would facilitate in any way the object we have in view.

Mr Asquith added that the Imperial Government would not from prejudice or through any indisposition to substitute for the methods which commended themselves to it hesitate to adopt methods which seemed likely to lead to more fertile and fruitful results, nor would it-close its ears to any proposal that might be made. That was a fair attitude for the Imperial Government and for any Government to take up. The peoples of the British Empire have a common object in view in this ■war. They are united in their determination to achieve that object. In order that it maybe achieved sacrifices are necessary, and they will b,e, as far as possible, cheerfully made. But there can be no desire that the poorest of the subjects of the King should be required to make proportionately the heaviest sacrifice. Any practicable proposal the adoption of which might tend to equalise the sacrifice merits, therefore, and should receive the fullest consideration.