RENT AND INTEREST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21267, 23 February 1931, Page 8

RENT AND INTEREST.

— READJUSTMENT WOULD BE HELPFUL. [Contributed.] In the stress and uncertainty ef the existing industrial unrest many retailers are having a particularly “lean” time, being menaced on the one hand by the Scylla of. high rent, and on the other ,by the Charybdis of excessive cost of goo'ds. Their biggest “overhead” is invariably rent, and in the general overhaul of the cost of living the landlord must be prepared to play his part. Every section of the community must realise that, whatever reduction takes place in wages and prices and costa, it must be shared by all. If there is any evasion, then to that extent is the day of a return to sound eoriditions delayed and the more difficult it will be, for the community to help in the general plan for an all-round lowering of costs. It must be remembered that thousands of shareholders in various companies and businesses have had to be content with reduced dividends, or no dividend at all, over a period of years; yet during that time rent and interest have remained at comparatively high rates. It should be obvious that there must be a reduction in both to bring them into dine with the lessened value of money and wages. Supply and demand may be a fixed law, but in time of crisis their stability as an economic fact can be maintained only by adjusting itself to altered conditions. Rent and interest will still have to be paid, but they must bear their due proportion to the other costs of living. The Prime Minister has made a public appeal to mortgagees, stock and station agents, banks and others, who have lent money to farmers, to deal reasonably with borrowers in the interests of the country as well as of those of the primary producers; and the same claim on behali of the consumers is also_ justifiable. Effectual co-operation is absolutely essential in order to gather together the many strands that represent society as a whole. in rent and interest and wages will not alone achieve all that is desired. .Every branch of commerce, industry, transport, marketing, distribution, sports and amusements, must be linked up so that the crisis shall be faced with a combination irresistible in its influence and power. The Government has given a lead, and business firms not affected by awards of the Arbitration Court have followed suit. The next move must come from landlords, merchants, the professions, and retailers. There is no class that can claim to be exempt from the necessity of helping the common cause. All shared in the benefits of the prosperous years; all must share proportionately in whatever economies are now necessary. These are times in which it has become necessary to readjust our views as to the relative value of money, and a reasonable discounting will help considerably to lessen the community’s difficulties.