The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JUNE 9, 1941. BURDENS OF FARMERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 115, 9 June 1941, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JUNE 9, 1941. BURDENS OF FARMERS

FARMING has been, and still is, the basic industry of the country, and farming in New Zealand is a hundred years old. Notwithstanding al the vicissitudes experienced by the industry and notwithstanding the constant and sometime drastic fluctuations in prices, the industry has expanded. Changes have occurred in the systems of farming but that* has never halted progress. Up to about the middle of the eighties of the last century the main items of export were wheat, wool, hides, skins and tallow. The colonial treasuries of those early days based their budgets on the wheat crop. When the freezing process was introduced, and the crea,m separator made its appearance, the system of farming had willy nilly to undergo changes. Many thrilling and many comical stories could be told of the events connected with the change over, but we cannot stop to recount these. It may be said in connection with freezing that many queer notions were held. The sheep were killed on shore and carted to the sailing ship to be frozen, while the earliest cream separators to reach the country were installed in sheds. We did not know the technique of these industries, yet in spite of the numerous difficulties and disappointments the industries were firmly established and farmers had to adopt their methods to suit the new conditions. The new industries were a factor in causing farming to expand, and to-day, as seventy or eighty years ago, the farming industy provides us with our export income. It is on the volume; of this income that we base our standard of living. And this export income is never constant like the wages and salaries earned by other sections of the community, and it varies from year to year because the prices paid for the exported products are beyond the control of the farmers. In spite of these fluctuations, the farming industry has grown. But now it is considered mainly by politicians that agricultural arid, pastoral industries should be assisted as much as possible. The farming industry is helped in a peculiar way, peculiar to politicians. The industry is being helped by Boards, and it is worth while recording these Boards. There is the Meat Producers' Board, the Dairy Board, the Dairy Council;, Pig Council, Poultry Board, Friiit Board, Honey Board, and there are two voluntary organisations whidh perhaps do the most effective work, these are the Sheepfarmers' Federation and the Farmers' Union. It must be obvious that, all these organisations— and most of them have a legal status —involve costs to the farmers, whose incomes, always a variable quantity, are on the whole lower now notwithstanding the high export prices, than they were before these organisations were foisted upon them. To-day farmers are full of justifiable complaints, and those complaints will, never cease so long as the politicians meddle with the business directly or indirectly. The best service that could be rendered the farmers is to keep the costs of production at a low level. The farmers who sell abroad must take.whatever prices the outside markets offer, and if those prices are low, and costs here az;e. high the farmer loses. And the worst feature is that he must pay the costs first and chance what he can get as income. What the farming industry needs to-day is not Beards and Councils, but reduction in costs, and that reduction must come about sooner or later.