PRICES OF THE PAST.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 26, 28 December 1932, Page 6

PRICES OF THE PAST.

FORMER DEPRESSION RECALLED COMPARISON WITH PRESENT. Recalling a slump of thirty years ago, a Wnirarapa farmer of long experience. had some interesting observations to make to a “Standard” reporter in comparing prices of those days with the values ruling during the present period of depression. He stated that in the early days slumps were expected every three years, but later the length of the complete cycle was extended to seven years, and still more recently, economic history had taken even longer to repeat itself. However, past slumps had been of comparatively short duration and had not had such a world-wide scope, so that under the altered conditions it was impossible to forecast the length of the present depression. There did, however, appear to be signs of improvement. Thirty years ago, this informant stated, the price of wool was down to 3i|d. The best price for fat lamb and ewes was Bs, and for fat wethers 10s. SOlllO farmers who secured an advance of 5d per lb on wool that realised 3id had to meet the adverse balance with all the next season’s clip. After about two years conditions began to change rapidly and wool prices were soon up to Is and improved even further, while values for stock increased all round.