The Waipa Post. TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1921. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

Waipa Post, Volume XIX, Issue 1076, 12 April 1921, Page 4

The Waipa Post. TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1921. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

CONTROL OF THE MARKETS* PRODUCTION just now seems to 'be at a discount. Our products are going forward to a market which, momentarily at least, is overstocked and in which supply appears to have very quickly overtaken the demand. Whatever ibe the cause, there is a decided decline, and the man on the land is beset on every sides. Whether the market is aetualy overstocked or whether producers are suffering from the 'machinations of a vicious trade circle is one of the perplexities trade problems of the moment, but the present position demonstrates how feeble is the producers’ organisation. The farmer is practically the only producer who is compelled to accept the price offered by the buyer. Time after time he has had warnings, but during a quarter of a century’s continued prosperity he has grown indifferent to all good advice. But now that he faces a position the like of which has not occurred since the advent of insulated freighters he will perhaps bestir himself to determine how far he is at the mercy of mammoth buying concerns, and to devise fresh methods in the future. While politicians have been calling loudly for more and still more production .there has been little attempt made to associate it with distribution. The needful and beneficial work of the producer is largely failing in its purpose through lack of contact with the consumer. Whilst every form of agrarian production is being encouraged and extended, that which is equally necessary—distribution—is being left very much to look after itself. Through our co-opera-tive concerns produce is assembled and made ready for the market, where it remains at the mercy of the jobber and the speculator. .Hence,, when the present situation arises, farmers are left wondering whether there really is an overstocked market or whether the position has been artificially created by a powerful ring or combination whose existence and doings can only be suspected. The fault —if fault there be —does not lie with the Government, but with the producers themselves; Too often the Government is expected to do the woi;k which people themselves ought to do. In the country indignation is always simmering, and when it bubbles over there is a deputation to the governmental head. Perhaps a commissioner is appointed to develop old markets and to exploit new ones, but the cost of such a procedure is likely as not means that the country is not even fractionally benefited. The primary producer should abandon such methods and himself organise his business, so that control may be retained right to the point of marketing. Such is not an experiment; the agricultural syndicates and farming cooperative societies of Denmark, Sweden, France ,and Canada furnish overwhelming evidence of the success that can be achieved when rural districts combine. The need is to enlarge the function of our co-operatives so that the produce which is the very lifeblood of this Dominion need not — even theoretically—be at the mercy of jobbers at the other side of the world.