PRUDENT COUNSEL

Waikato Times, Volume 90, Issue 14025, 31 March 1919, Page 4

PRUDENT COUNSEL

Mr. Joseph Barugh, Chairman of Directors of the Farmers’ Co-opera-tive Auctioneering Company, is a practical farmer and man of business, and he is in an exceptional position to gauge events and form a cool judgment. When, therefore, he feels impelled to sound a note of warning it would, perhaps, bo well for the average man, not so favoured, to give that warning due heed. On Saturday, in his address to the.shareholders of the company, Mr. Barugh spoke with no uncertain voice as to the groat risk of men with moderate capital purchasing holdings at high prices and trusting to get further accommodation for the purchase of stock. He expressed the view that money would become, tighter in the near future, in which .case the unfortunate may find himself in financial shallows from which it may he difficult to extricate himself. Mr. Barugh further pointed out that while the prospects for butter and cheese are bright for the ensuing season, suppliers contemplating embarking in the dried . milk industry would he well advised not to base their hopes upon the maintenance of the figures now ruling, but to allow a substantial margin for safety. This is the counsel of prudence, and if it is observed, heartburning and disaster may be averted. There is a growing conviction that it is possible to pay an unwarranted price for land, and it Is recognised that if the legitimate limit is exceeded' it means trouble for the purchaser who seeks to work it. We do not say that the zenith has been reached, for, if present prices for our produce continue it may be possible to make’ a living on land at even higher values than those now ruling. It is for the seeker after land, however, to satisfy himself upon the point as to whether present prices will continue indefiitely. Unless he can assure himself that they will, he would be well advised to fix a hard-and-fast limit upon the purchaseable value of his land. Caution is necessary.