Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1947 FALL IN PRIMARY PRODUCTION

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 71, 10 January 1947, Page 4

Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1947 FALL IN PRIMARY PRODUCTION

FIGURES released in the New Year, indicate the steady decline in dairy production, though refreshingly enough, meat production has substantially increased. Over recent years Ministerial warnings have been heard emphasising the downward trend which was due primarily to war conditions. However the position has not mended to the extent expected and it is interesting to note the unpalatable facts : (1) The volume of farm production in New Zealand has been falling; and (2) the volume of total production per head has been falling. In both cases the fall began in 1941-42 and is continuing. The Abstract of Statistics, dated December 31, 1945, quotes the following index numbers of the volume of farm production (base: 1938-39 equals 100): 1940- 116 1941- 111 1942- 108 1943- 105 Because of wartime export prices, the value of farm production has remained at the 1940-41 level. But it is the volume of production that is the significant figure, for that is the measure of what the country is producing regardless of what prices may happen to be ruling at any particular time. Factory production has shown marked increases, both in volume and in value, since 1938-39; but the decline in the volume of farm production has carried the combined farm-and-factory index figure down from the 1940-41 peak of 112 to 107 in 1943-44. A similar drop is shown in the index of total production per head, covering all the classified groups, which has fallen from 111 in 1940-41 to 106 in 1943-44. The following table shows the total and per head decline in production over the four-year period: 1940- 112 111 1941- 110 109 1942- 109 107 1943- 107 106 The decline in the volume of farm production was 9.5 per cent, between 1941 and 1944. It may have been partly the result of wartime influences, notably the transfer of large numbers of men from farming into the armed forces, although in some other countries production was maintained and-increased in spite of manpower losses. The decline in the volume of production per head of population is less easy to blame on the war: it suggests that individual workers are giving a smaller return for what they receive. What is important now is that the downward trend in this new year of 1947 should be halted and reversed for clearly it will not support social and economic benefits upon an increasing scale. Earnest work and a tolerant co-operative spirit are the two paramount needs in New Zealand today.