PERIOD OF LOWER PRICES

Taranaki Daily News, 6 June 1930, Page 7

PERIOD OF LOWER PRICES

MR. W. D. STEWART’S OPINIONS. CONTROL OF COSTS NECESSARY. Some of the factors that are regarded by farmers as . contributing causes to the current pastoral depression were dealt with in his address at the opening on Wednesday of the conference of the Otago provincial council of - the New Zealand Farmers’ Union by Mr.-. W. Downie Stewart, M.P. & Mr. Stewart said that at the annual meeting of the Otago A. and P. Society on Tuesday night the president, Mr. James Begg, had attributed many of the current problems to the fact that the production'of gold was not keeping pace with the growth of trade and production. This contention was probably a . sound , one, but it was . very difficult to explain. They had only to look at America to see that there was more in the present position than Mr. Begg suggested. America was flooded with gold, and yet she was troubled by the same difficulties as were harassing the rest of the world. The question of the production of gold, was of international significance, and was very much beyond this country’s control. Since they could not get prices up they must concentrate on getting production costs down. They could control • costs and were doing so by means of marketing control, and he thought that there was still more that could be achieved in this direction. .

; The,, conference, said Mr. Stewart, had addressed itself to two very important subjects in the de-vab.u,'; of farm lands and the transibii-uci of more of the burden of road construction and maintenance from local bod’d® to the Main Highways Board. The remits dealing with those subjects all aimed at justifiable relief from taxation, and he considered that it was the best line of advance they could take at . the present time, and for a while to come. The demands on the farmers’ resources were very heavy. He personally knew of cases of farmers whose whole annual value was absorbed by local taxation, of course such cases were not numerous, but it could not be denied that the fanner was caght. in a crossfire that proved very damaging. De-rating was likely to give rise to a good deal of opposition, and had already done so, but he would like to assure thciri that he considered they were on very sound ground. The speaker mentioned another of the opinions expressed by’ Mr. Begg, that in' respect to the Arbitration Court," which Mr. Stewart described as the second greatest handicap the farmer had. There was no doubt that the rigid fixation of wages reacted adversely on the farmer, although_he was not subject to awards. It was also a cause of much of the unemployment .in the cities. It had often puzzled him to think of the farmers crying out for labour, but compelled to watch their farms going back because they could not get it, while all the time there were hundreds of unemployed in the city. It appeared that the Labour unions and secretaries knew of the work available in the country, but they could come to no agreement with the farmers because of the hiatus between what farmers could pay and what the workers asked. It occurred to him that the abolition of compulsory arbitration would bo found to be a less effective move than was popularly supposed. The court had now survived .35 years. It had resisted a challenge from the employers and had withstood the fierce attacks of: the big fighting unions. He had noticed that in countries that had no arbitration system the unions generally managed to get what they wanted. They were so powerful that they could achieve arrangements that were miite as irritating as anything awarded

by the court. He was extremely doubtful whether either abolition or modification of the court’s powers would ’ be as beneficial as they appeared to suppose. Referring .to Mr. Begg’s contention that everything should suffer the same reduction as prices for produce and thus bring about a readjustment' of things on a lower basis, Mr. Stewart said this might be correct, but whether it came about voluntarily or involuntarily it was a. change that would not be an unmixed blessing. It would not have the same effect on all classes of the The person with a fixed income from rent or interest or some other source .would be in a better position than the wage-earner or the manufacturer. If Mr. Begg were to sell his farm and invest his money he would reap considerable benefit from such a readjustment. . The idea was all right, but they should -not lose sight of the fact that it would not operate equitably for all classes.