The Waipukurau Press. Published: MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, AND FRIDAYS. MONDAY, JUNE 25, 1928. A TIMELY WARNING.

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXII, Issue 225, 25 June 1928, Page 4

The Waipukurau Press. Published: MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, AND FRIDAYS. MONDAY, JUNE 25, 1928. A TIMELY WARNING.

' As we pointed out recently when dealing with the adverse trend of population, i.e., from the country centres to the towns, and cities, emphasising the need for grappling more effectively with the land settlement problem, the tendency in prosperity is to forget the lessons that should be learned from adversity. While recognising that the slump period (1921-23 is so recent a memory that farmers and traders are not likely to be led away to anything like the same extent as during the boom period of the Great War, we realise that there is need for sounding a note of caution. On this score comments made by Mr J. S. McLeod in his presidential address to the Hastings Chamber of Commerce are noteworthy and of special interest to Hawke’s Bay people. He said that prices for wool were higher last year than they had been for the past 36 years, except in 1925. When there was a rise in prices there was always a subsequent fall, he continued. The high prices obtained last year would no doubt obtain again next season, but it must not be forgotten that high prices often gave rise to fallacious confidence. Mr McLeod said that in 1926 wool sold in Napier amounted to 87,000 bales and brought £1,497,976; in 1927 the number of bales sold was 97,576 and the value was £2,287,497. Those figures showed an increase of 10,000 in the number of bales, and of £lOO,OOO in the value. The average increase per pound was about 15d. A great deal of the extra money for wool in Hawke’s Bay this season had been forestalled, but next year it would not be so and the benefits then would be far greater and more clearly felt. Great prosperity had been achieved during the wool commandeering perior, Mr McLeod added, and he had heard it said by wool growers that they expected never to realise anything better. It was on tnat basis of thought that the boom period of false prices was" brought about. There was a justifiable fear that the people of the Dominion would be similarly carried away again. The increasing prosperity of Britain was the most dependable guide to our own Dominion’s prosperity and without the contribution of Britain we would be in a bad way.