AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 12580, 29 September 1908, Page 4

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

Inquibles made in Dunedin tend to show that there is a good deal more'significance in the raised prices of agricultural implements than meets the eye of the casual observer. It has been suggested at Christchurch that the rise is consequent on the enhanced cost of the raw material and on recent awards of the Arbitration Court. According to Dunedin expert opinion the former suggestion, though containing a medicum of truth, may be regarded almost as a negligible quantity, while the latter would seem to be a stern reality only too well borne out by facts. The workers, with a view to bettering their position, have appealed to arbitration. The resultant awards have caused a revision of the | pay rolls, and manufcturers, as an only means of adjusting the balance of expenAture,- are raising prices in all standard lines. The only people who buy ploughs and harrows are husbandmen and agriculturists, and such must; therefore, be primary sufferers. As to whether these last will in turn raise the prices of their commodities, and so place the worker in precisely the same position as he was before, remains to be seen. Mr Gibson, of the firm of Nimmo and Blair, said that he thought the agents would all be to a certain extent affected, but he pointed out that the rise in the prices of implements manufactured in New Zealand would probably have the effect of driving people to invest in imported articles, the manufacturers of which, not being in New Zealand, were not affected by the awards. It would, therefore, be seen that while local manufacturers stood to lose whether they raised their prices' or not, importers would probably be gainers. Certain lines would undoubtedly remain unaltered, but- as the prices in. standard lines were to be raised in Christchurch, the possibility of their remaining stationary in Otago and Southland was remote. It was urged in certain quarters that even five per cent, was, after all, nothing tremendous, but against this it must be remembered that five per cent, meant a great deal to business men, such as the agriculturists of Otago and Southland undoubtedly are.