Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, FEB. 26, 1925 THE ROYAL COMMISSION UPON FOOD PRICES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16671, 26 February 1925, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, FEB. 26, 1925 THE ROYAL COMMISSION UPON FOOD PRICES.

It is gradually becoming clearer that unless (lie Commission now engaged, with great, thoroughness, in tiie' investigation of the whole question of food prices in Great Britain is prepared to ho daringly original, its inquiries will result in little more than the revelation of faets which are already perfectly wellknown, and which were quite clearly placed upon public record by Lord Linlithgow’s committee some time ago. it is common knowledge that food prices are too high, when the food reaches the homes of the people. Everyone knows that the cause is mainly the large profits which are intercepted by the middle men. It is also qjuite plain that the Argentine meat market is controlled by the American mighty five*

and that their only competitor is the British combine, the operations of which are apparently guided by Lord Vestey. That this last combine is a moneymaking business, and- not a charitable institution, is fairly clear from the published 'balance-sheets of the Union Cold Storage Company. These facts might just as wofi nave been admitted at the outset of the Commission’s task. We suppose that dial, would not have been ([line the right thing for a. Koval Coinmission to have done. Keaily, the only nee of Ihe Commission will lie, when they eon firm once again well-known facts, to iimi out a remedy. If they are unable to do this they will have failed. During the war Great. Britain had sonic experience as to food control by the Government. While it is an unsolved puzzle liow to interfere with th,e economic Jaws of supply and demand, without resort to arbitrary enactment, and without doing a great deal more harm than good, it is very tempting to iook for some wider form of control than merely a commandeer of dis-. tribution at the market end, All past experience casts doubt upon the economio capacity of a St ate Bureaucracy to manage an industrial enterprise. The experience possessed by the great firms now operating in tne overseas meat '■ market lias been acquired at the cost of many lives, gaining in keenness and in-1 tensity as, during many years, the in- 1 clusl ry has been built up to its present nuge dimensions. It would be unreason- | abie |o expect Government officials, even : if recruited from the staffs of superseded iirms, to obtain 1 anything approaching the economic results now obtained by the combines. If these agencies at present net twenty-five per cent, profit, and the Government inexperience amounted, as it easily might, to thirty per cent, excess running costs, it is obvious that the price of meat could not be reduced unless the loss, under such circumstances, was made good by the general taxpayer. In depriving the existing corporations o,f their middleman’s profit, the money diverted would, indirectly, filter down to the generai public in multiple jobs, extension of services, and additional or increased wages. Under a limited Government control ot distribution, exercised in Great Britain only; if we are right that the increased cost, entailed by inevitable inefficiency, would not reduce the cost of meat to the consumer, the difference would be that the money representing the middleman’s profits would be indirectly dis- ‘ tributed among tile people in extra running expenses. In spite of all this possible, and highly probable leakage, we should favor the experiment rather than allow the present exploitation ot ’foodstuffs to go on unchecked. No one ■can say to wliat extent the constant •harrowing down of competition by trusts and combines may extend, greatly augmenting commercial exploitation in food supplies, economy in which is essential, if Great Britain is to hold her position as a manufacturing nation. It is only by the stimulation of manufactures that it is possible for her to maintain the ’present, population upon a self-support-ing base, It may, of course, be possible for the Commission to hit upon a commendable alternative. So far there does not appear to be room for compromise. The economic laws of supply and demand must be left to work out the public salvation, or there must be control with its well-known evils. One other course has been outlined by an independent writer in the leading columns of the Spectator. It is more a vision than a well-weighed proposal. It is to treat the whole question of food supplies produced and supplied within the Empire upon an Imperial base; to empower the Imperial Government, together with the Governments of' the Dominions,. to take control at both ends; to commandeer the produce, the factories,: all distributing agencies, and the freight, leaving to each Dominion Government the task of protecting the producers and others affected within its jurisdiction. It does look as if the circumstances of trade and production have so altered that, unfettered competition is unable to ensure the lowest cost of food, commensurable with fair .profit, to the public. If it proves to be so, no political economic formula of spent force should lie allowed Id impede fair trade. There must come a time when the diverging views of Die people of the horn© land, who supply the market, and of the peoples at the ends of the earth who export the produce, must be fully faced and considered. The Empire life is oij.n; its interests as a whole are indivisible. While this is so the apparent interests of tho parts, in this particular, are in conflict. The producer, quite properly, expects and fights for the highest return he can get for his exertions. The home employer faced with foreign competition abroad, and increasing running costs at his front door, is vitally concerned to see the cost of living reduced as much as possible to the British workers. If it were possible. to follow the interchange of trade between the Home land and the Dominions in its various ramifications it might be possible to show that inordinately high prices received for pro duce may be covered, as to the excess over normal returns, by the increased cost forced > upon manufactured .goods that the Dominions must import in exchange for produce exported. The report of the Commission will be awaited with tho keenest interest. Possibly ihe way out may be upon Imperial lines; if not quite such draconic ones, as have been outlined, and to which we have referred. The problem is not going to be solved by the resolutions and recommendations of Cimmissions lacking virile force. The strong mail must-be forthcoming. Another Rhodes or Seddon is required, and no doubt will be forthcoming. A .great necessity always pro- j duces a great man. ]