BREAKERS AHEAD?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19762, 13 April 1926, Page 9

BREAKERS AHEAD?

THE COST OF LUXURY.

A NOTE OF WARNING,

(Per United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, April 12.

Sir Harold Beauchamp, in an interview, said: ‘ Frequently during the past few years my ciitics have described me as a pessimist. There are no grounds for classing me in that category. On the contrary, I am everything of an optimist, but I conceive it one of my duties to point out the dangers existing through the riotous extravagance that one sees in this country. In this extravagance so many people find it difficult to beat- what they describe as the high cost of living. Over and over again it has been pointed out that it is not the high cost of living, but cost of high living.

Sir Harold declared that there were many men in New Zealand with salaries of £4OO and £SOO a year who owned motor cars, used simply for joy-riding. Manv of these cars were bought on the instalment system, say £lO down and the balance spread over two or three years. In the finding of the money for the payment of their instalments, the butcher, baker, grocer and other tradesmen had to suffer.

It had been suggested with a view to checking this class of luxury that the Government should be invited to exclude motor cars from the benefits of the Chattels Securities Act. If that were done, the sellers would in self-protection be compelled to insist on a greater part of the purchase money being paid on delivery, instead of being spread over a period of years. “The cost of production values ruling to-day fcr our primary produce compare favourably with those ruling in pre-war days,” said bMr Harold, “but the producers are suffering from the high cost of production and the inordinate prices they have been paying for all classes of farm lands. There is at the present time an adjustment being made in land values, which ought to ameliorate the present conditions. If the land values of this country could only be brought down to a reasonable figure, it would relieve many of the difficulties the farmers are having in making both ends meet.”