PROFITEERING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12707, 31 July 1919, Page 8

PROFITEERING.

A CLERGYMAN'S STRICTURES. [FROM OCE CoKKT,aPONDEX.T.] WELLINGTON. July 30. A denunciation from the pulpit of profiteering has drawn down on the Iter J. G. Chapman tho wrath of a. number .of newspaper correspondents, who have greatly, enlivened this usually dull part of the daily Press. It is evident that this question is exoiting much more public interest than the coal shortage or the return of the political leaders. A trader who deals with the minister- s- allegations seriatim says :—" "\Ve have tho fact that in Auckland well-to-do folk have to pay Is 4d a dozen for cakes. It -they don't like it, the remedy is in their own hands: let them bake their own. In any case the price of such unnecessary luxuries for Aucklanders does not concern us at all. It has no bearing on such a big problem a,s the proper" distribution ol wealtli or right conditions between manual workers and the rest of the community. The prencher then mentioned flour, and implied that all. sellers but those in Auckland were fleecing the community. Had he taken the trouble to inquire he would have known that the Government gives a subaidv to flourmillers to enable them to sell flour at a reasonable rate. That rate is fixed by regulation. His other case was extraordinary, as he wished his bearers to believe, that the master tailors make 20s extra profit for everv Is increase in wages paid. That means that it the master tailor employed eight heads and they' had each had an morea*e of los a week since the war. then the employer would be making an extra profit of £6240 per annum in addition to what he. was makinc previously." ' °

The tailoring aspect of the /Methodist minister’s criticism is the subject of a letter from the president of the Weilington Master Tailors* Association, who declares that one outstanding fact is that at the present time every employer in Wellington Is practically a craftsman working at his table every time to earn bis living. “ Not so very long ago,” lie writes. "nearly all the leading drapers had a bespoke tailoring department. Now, the drapers are usually very keen business men and not easily choked off a. good thing once they hay© hold of it. Yet they have found tailoring so barren of profit that to-day every one of them has closed lip. that department., Lees Hr Chapman know of any other reason why these tailors’ workshops were closed? If so, I would like to hear- it- Mr Chapman suggests Government interference. Well, the Government is as greedy a. profiteer as any yet unhung. In pre-war times 7s 6d a suit was about the amount paid in Customs duty, hut, woollens being three times the price to-day, the Government collects about 22s 6d a suit. That allows the Finance Minister to to Ik glibly about our buoyant revenue and abounding prosperity. If Mr Chapman cares to get the truth, I will rvillingly produce invoices, etc., showing from 100 to 300 per cent increase on pre-war prices, and wh©n li© roaliF©s what the profits are he will agree that the drapers are wise men t in turning bespoke tailoring out of doors.”.

LOSSES ON WIRE. "It might interest the revereud gentleman to know,'-' rays another correspondent, manager of a large business, "that hundreds of tons of vir<a are being sold now at a, loss of £lO to £l2 per ton to compete with costs of recent shipments.' 1 Such a controversy naturally tends to become personal in tone, for the same- correspondent concludes by asking if the motive of Mr Chapman's attack is a desire for sensation. " Will the Rev Mr Chapman," he asks, " deny that he told one of his hearers on Sunday night, after being warned to be careful of his statements, 'Oh, veil, it will bring a lot to church who otherwise would-; not come'?" ''And what," asks the correspondent, "does he mean by the statement that when a revolution comes he is prepared to carry the banner? Which banner does he mean—the banner of Bolshevism, terrorism, or what? This is a beautiful statement to come from a minister of the gospel-" Finally though not directly answering Mr Chapman's criticisms, a small farmer gives nji elaborate balancesheet, demonstrating the cost of producing hutter-fßt. to be 2s per lb, the price paid for butter at the factory door being Is od, leaving a loss of 7d. An allowance, he says, of l()s per day has been made for the farmers labour —a small enough wage for a man who works from -i a.m. to S p.m. under very uncomfortable conditions for seven days a wpek for the best part of the year. If. however, the farmer, as usual, takes ho account of his own family's labour, then the cost of production work? out at Is Id per lb, which leaves 5s 6d per day to cover the value of the labour of. the farmer and his family to milk thirty cows and do the farm work—a clear case of shameful sweating.