The Sun MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1916. THE WOOL DIFFICULTY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 867, 20 November 1916, Page 6

The Sun MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1916. THE WOOL DIFFICULTY.

A very unsatisfactory feature of the negotiations that are at present proceeding in regard to the New Zealand wool clip is the secretive and unrandid attitude of the Government in the mailer. In a question like this which seriously affects thousands of farmers directly, and the whole of the Dominion indirectly, the fullest information should he made public so that everyone will be in a position to judge as to the reasonableness of the proposals being made on either side. Presumably the Imperial authorities object to pay last year's prices which were asked for by the growers, hence a counter olfer and another meeting of representatives of the glowers which has heen called for Wednesday in Wellington. But why should the latest oiler he concealed? Every person whose wool is liable lo be seized is entitled to know it. The handful of growers who proceed to Wellington at the inivitation of the Minister have no authority to pledge anyone but themselves individually, and they may be moved by motives of patriotism or self-interest according to the way their pocket is touched. Sundry persons and newspapers who sacrifice nothing in the cause of patriotism themselves are loudly demanding that because conscription is in force—a conscription that applies equally to the wool grower and his sons as to the labourer and his—wool should be "conscripted" without much regard as to what is paid for it. This, of course, is merely a vicious attempt to create class antagonism. The people who talk like that and who are calling out for liberal separation allowances, military pensions, and so forth, seem to forget thai if the primary products are "conscripted" without being adequately paid for there will be no money available for the purposes referred 10. The bulk of the taxation in New Zealand is paid by the producers of primary produce, and those who gel Iheir living by handling that produce or by catering for the needs of the farming community. The wealth derivable from primary produce is the reservoir from which the community mainly draws the means of carrying on the war, the administration of the country, the provision of pensions, and all the rest. Owing to our failure to develop satisfactorily our manufacturing in-

uustries, we are absolutely dependent on agriculture for keeping things going. The vast majority of persons who are paid wages and salaries for carrying on such manufacturing industries as we possess, and the distributing agencies that are necessary to bring producer and consumer together, are not earning much more than their keep. They are paying very little taxation, and their capacity for consumption is well up to their earning power. In fact industrial statistics in many instances indicate that the balance is on the wrong side. The present is no lime for studying the interests of particular individuals but it is quite wrong for people to allow their traditional political I hut red of farmers and wool-growers to militate against their judgment. A jconsiderable portion of the two or ■three millions which the woolIgrowers are to be mulcted in by having their wool taken al a price considerably below the market value, would be taken by the (iovernnient in any case as excess profits, and if the (iovcrnmcnl does | not get this money from the woolgrower someone else must provide it. Finally it occurs to us that if we have reached a stage when such a serious step as "commandeering" the New Zealand wool clip is abso-

lately necessary to winning the war, then it is lime some attempt was made to lake slock of the entire resources of the Empire in the mailer of products essential to the main- 1 tenance of military supplies with I a view to levying equally upon British producers irrespective of the portion of the Empire in which they may happen to live. New Zealand has always been intensely patriotic, and it is beginning to look as if the Imperial Authorities were di - * posed to trade upon it, and saddle the i willing horse with a load that is out 1 of proportion to that carried by the rest of the team.