The Price of Food.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 40, 2 October 1902, Page 18

The Price of Food.

The rural producers of the Colony are reaping a rich harvest caused by a chain of circumstances extremely fortunate for them. The recent war in Africa caused an unexampled demand for fodder and for other articles raised in the country, with the natural result that prices rose to a degree that a little time before was hardly hoped for. Then followed the culmination of the drought in Australia, causing a demand for cereals, roots, dairy produce, and meats, which are now being exported in large quantities, and with great profit to the producers. The good fortune enjoyed by the

farmers, however, spells hardship to the dwellefs in towns, who are consumers merely. They find their staple articles of food supply greatly increased in price, and that without a proportionate increase in wages. The head of a family who has a fixed salary, or, worse still, the one who has no fixed income at all, may be pardoned for feeling a little impatient with conditions that place his means of living practically at the mercy of the needa of other countries. He may philosophically argue that what benefits one section of the community indirectly benefits the whole, but the reasoning giveß him little solid satisfaction, when the week's or month's end, as the case may be, sees his household bills demanding settlement, and he ruefully contemplates the ever shrinking margin between his earning oapaoity and his inevitable needs. But if he will only maintain his equanimity he must see that he will eventually share in the gain now being reaped by the farmer. The large influx of foreign money mußt permeate the whole community. Farmers are not likely, any more than any other to bank their profits and let them lie idle. If they have encumbrances they clear them off, and so increase their spending power. Then they add to their holdings, if they oan, they increase the size of their dwellings, they obtain a few more of the luxuries and conveniences that too often they are compelled to deny themselves. And they thus disseminate the golden seed. But the most tangible result will be the impetus given to production. The resources of the Colony hare as yet been barely opened up. The history of the frozen meat trade proves this. Notwithstanding the enormous and increasing export of frozen mutton, there are actually at the present moment a greater number of sheep in the Colony than at any previous time. Th» export of butter has made enormous strides, yet the supply increases in greater proportion. The Colony has entered the world's markets.

In some isolated township, cut off from full connection with the outer world by want of railways or roads, a local market only *a obtainable, and prices are regulated largely by custom, fixed by looal circumstances. The position of the Colony was exactly analogous a few years ago. Then the prices were ruled by looal circumstances ; now the farmer scans his paper for the market prices in London or Sydney, and the local values fluctuate accordingly. The present high rates cannot be maintained. Under ordinary circumstances Australia produces not only enough for its own wants, but a surplus for export. The seven years of famine are invariably followed by a period of plenty, when the earth gratefully repays the lenity of the elements. If prices fall in Sydney but very little, there will no longer be a margin of profit for New Zealand exporters. The African market cannot be looked upon as a permanent one, bo that the ultimate outlet must be Britain. Now is the time, therefore, for the farmer to widen his area of produo. tion by increasing the number of lines suitable for export as well as local consumption Eggs and fowls may be profitably exported, Honey is a valuable and money-making adjunct. There is a large demand for flax and linseed. Beet sugar would find a ready market Fruit is not grown to anything like the extent to which it should be grown. Let our farmers get out of the everlasting rut — produo - ing oats and wheat, with a little milk and butter, and here and there a few bales of wool by the more enterprising. By so doing they would not only make their calling less precarious, but make it more pleasant and less toilsome. And by widening their field of production they would place the local consumer above the risk of being injured by such a combination of circumstances as that whioh at present prevails. The farmer might grow lesa oats, and would not emulate the lucky digger by rare returns of half-crown a bushel, but on the other hand he would not be entirely at the mercy of the world when the return was a shilling.