The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1915. THE COST OF LIVING.

Southland Times, Issue 17467, 23 March 1915, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1915. THE COST OF LIVING.

The increasing cost of living is a problem as real as it is difficult. There are two obvious facts in connection with it. One is that the grievance is universal, and the oilier is that no--1 body lias succeeded in finding a remedy j for it. Perhaps another obvious fact ! is that Governments in office arc ! invariably blamed for any rise in the ! prices of commodities. Hut Governi ments have very, little control over | prices. Their powers and authorities i are local only, and the causes of high | prices arc wide-world in their opera- | tion. It is very easy to criticise and i say that the Government should do | this and do that, and the Government 1 of New Zealand has not been spared I by its critics. Yet Mr Massey has done as well as most Prime Ministers and better than some. He very early realised that there would he a shortage in wheat and by importing wheat look the most effective course to keep down prices by maintaining an equality between supply and demand. Xo Government, can arbitrarily fix a price for wheat or any other foodstuff. Any price that a Government fixes musi approximate to the ruling price in the open market. In Now Zealand the order of fixing a maximum price for wheat was revoked; in some of the Australian States an attempt was made to enforce the fixed price, but as the market price rose the official price was raised also. Prices .cannot be controlled merely by fixing an arbitrary price. Xo commodity can be bought for less than its market value, and Mr Massey applied the true remedy when he endeavoured by importation to provide a supply adequate to the demand. Xow Mr Massey lias prohibited the exportation of oats in the belief that the harvest will fall short of local requirements by three million bushels. There seems to be little doubt but that the estimates by which Mr Massey was guided wore misleading and that the yield will be very much greater than was antici-

pated, but In any case It Is open to question whether the restriction of the farmer’s market was desirable. It is hardly logical to close the open market to the farmer and at the same time to appeal to him to increase the area under crop. The farmer will grow what pays him best, and if there is any doubt as to his liberty to dispose of any line of produce to the best advantage he will not grow that line, and the last state of the community will be worse than the first—the scarcity will become more acute. Furthermore, the farmer is entitled to ask for a bargain that cuts both ways. If the State assumes the right to restrict his profits in years of high prices, it can hardly escape the obligation to bear some proportion of his losses in years of unremunerative prices. Oats have been unsaleable in' Invercargill and farmers have been compelled to accept prices which entailed a loss, but no labour unions wrote to Town Councils urging that the community should be taxed to make up to the farmer the difference between the market rate and a fair profit. One speaker at the meeting held in Invercargill on Saturday showed that the average price of oats for the last four years, and Including this year, has been 2s 4d, which is not a high average. It is necessary, also, that matters should take their normal course in order that the scarcity may be removed and prices brought down. The effect of high prices is to reduce consumption and in this way existing supplies are made to go further, and there is a better chance of carrying on till next harvest. Then high prices stimulate production, and increased production is the natural remedy for high prices. It is, of course, not difficult to point out what should not be done, much easier, than to show how the undoubted burden of the cost of living can be eased, but it is clearly necessary to do nothing that may check production. With millions of men withdrawn from productive industry, and consumption enormously increased by war, it is imperative that in countries like New Zealand the production of cereals, dairy produce, meat and wool should increase, and the only way to ensure an increase is to give the farmer the inducements of the world’s markets. No man can reasonably ho expected to grow wheat or oats if there is any possibility that he may be compelled by the State to accept less for his produce than its value in the world's market, and Mr Massey will have to exercise care in imposing restrictions upon free exchange if he does not wish to frustrate the object of his own appeal for increased production.