MARKET CONDITIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22607, 26 June 1935, Page 5

MARKET CONDITIONS

ARTIFICIAL TRADE STIMULANTS MUST BE FOUGHT LIKE PLAGUE (Peb United Peess Association) WELLINGTON, June 25. General market conditions were, discussed in an address to the annual conference of the Royal Agricultural Society to-day by Mr L. R. C. Macfarlane, of Culverden, who returned recently from a visit to Great Britain. He said that in the present state of world standards of living New Zealanders could not reasonably very much more for their wool than at present. ■ In considering the markets to-day there were three factors to keep in mind. (1) The markets depended normally on the supply and demand, but of recent years this old law had been upset and nullified in most countries by direct political and semi-political interference. (2) It was agrarian habit the world over to increase production ahead of the demand, and in spite of the plans to the contrary, the steam roHer of agricultural production moved on irresistibly, and if checked in one direction it found a new level like water in another. (3) Trade to-day in most countries was back to normal after the sub-normal war and post-war years, and so they could look forward for increased consumption and rising prices on a very gradually rising scale. His advice, eaid Mr Macfarlane, was to fight all artificial trade stimulants like a plague, diversifying local 'production in every way, continuing to produce only the best, adjusting the costs of production to meet if anything lower prices in the future, and in spite of the sphinx-like gentleman who controlled the Reserve Bank, keeping something up their sleeves to meet exchange equalisation when it came, to adjust the standards of living and to maintain efficient organisation. Mr Macfarlane appealed for the stimulation of new industries in this country, both primary and secondary. In initiative, resourcefulness and development the secondary industries had lagged far behind the primary ones, and to-day, instead of being a help in meeting the national Budget, they reacted in very much the reverse order.