A QUESTION OF BELIEF.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 107, 27 June 1911, Page 5

A QUESTION OF BELIEF.

WHOSE WORD WILL CARRY WEIGHT ? Palmerston the other day the Hon. T. Mackenzie, Minister for Agriculture, delivered a speech as a counterblast to the address of Mr Harold Beauchamp, chairman of directors of the Bank of New Zealand, delivered before the annual meeting of Mho shareholders of the hank. In concluding his references to the address in question Mr Mackenzie said: —Before leaving this matter it may ho of interest to mention a conversation that took place between half a do/.en people with reference to the address I have alluded to. In connection with that conversation the following occurred: The first speaker said that there was a Sydney lad who dined at the same table with him who remarked “That speech of the president’s shows a bad look-out before Now Zealand, and ! will have to tell some of my friends in Australia about it.” The next observances wore from a man who said: “What is the use of taking any notice of it I will tell you what will happen. When the landowners read it, instead of going on with the improvements they intended carrying out, they will shut up their pockets and pay the men off, because they are afraid that the lower prices for products and stock will not justify them in making the improvements they contemplated. And this would malm labour for other requirements plentiful.” I then remarked (said the Minister) that it was not correct that prices were going to ho low and that that did not make for improvement, as ■ there was such a shortage of labour in Australia that the men would probably leave to got work there, and this would enormously increase the difficulty of getting men when the farmers discovered that there was no justification for the gloomy forecast. A fourth man took up the discussion, and he observed “But. whom are wc to believe, the president of the bank or yon?” 1 rejoined, “Let past experience bo the guide. I have ventured forecasts previously and fortunately they; have been fulfilled, which is a justification of placing some reliance on my words.” Ho replied, “The hank report will go throughout the seven-ty-live brandies of the haul; and every manager will take his cue from the president and show that the prices are going to ho low; and your reply cannot reach as far as the hank managers’ and bank agents’ opinion will go.”