FALLING PRICES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 22 November 1924, Page 5

FALLING PRICES.

■V PROFESSOR'S VIEW

QUEST] OX ED BY BUSINESS MAX Rroles.sor J. B. Conlifle, ul Canter bury kj ii.vers.ty College, n.u> oil io.ti’.i occasions expros&ou i«c opinion unit iw general leiiuoiß'y 01 pr.tv.-j was uoivu warns. .1 ne pro.es.jUi- iuo .mu i oil at no conclusion niter c.oso reasoning tun. is probably lugnt, but an ooservam. oils, ness man m u eii iiymi views tiling m a tlnieretiL iigm. .In course o con versa lion lie suggested spending i quarter of an hour or .so on the o.tu moused Hun Jtond 10 count tin; mini her ot private motor (;;;rs Travelling tin road. 'ten years ago most people trav oiled in a dog cart, the norse, trap :md harness worth anout 810 to Bod and it would be a smart turnout a that. Xow people .are travel!.tig tin same road m motor cars worth iron BLdtO to BGUO, and more, and costing ; good deal for upkeep, and they an living m houses worth from 81500 t( BIBiOU, wearing suits that cost from tei to tourteen guineas, enjoy.ng them selves at theatres, cabarets, and jaai at tall prices. Blow can prices lull: Surely tins indicates a. new appraise meat of values, which are now beeomini inore or less stabilised.-' Supposing however, that values go down to sa.. 2o per'cent, above pre-war level, wliai wdt happen then, was the question pul to the observant one, and Jus repl.v was “Bankruptcy with a big ‘B.’ ” .tk was good enough to admit that if niono\ became dearer in London it would upsei calculations. He was also gcncroii.enough to say that lie could not fathom the present economic conditions.. 'flu. United States possessed most ot tin world’s gold and was rich beyond tin dreams of avarice and yet America it only just recovering irom a period ol dull trade, ,nn<l wool brokers are stn wondering wliother the Americans ml buy New Zealand wool this season, lr South Africa the Rand mines are producing more gold now than ever belore and vet trade in that country is ver\ dull." 11l Australia wool is selling at extreme prices, and yet there is a bumper whe-.at crop, a big sugar crop, am a bounteous wine crop, and there is ; scarcity of money in the with rates of interest running up to t per cent. In Xow Zealand, uotuith standing high prices for butter, cheese meat and wool aiuL-the lavish borrow in; ami spending of the Covermnent, am the nursing of the Advances Dep.ut ment and the boards of control for this that and tlm other industry, trade liw been dull and the moratorium. I hat ball mark of financial insecurity, is with uQueer conditions and hevond the powent the observant to explain.