MACHINES NEEDED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 34, 28 May 1947, Page 6

MACHINES NEEDED

CRISIS FEARED PRODUCTION DROP PREDICTED Thousands of new machines are needed urgently by the farmers of New Zealand if they are even to maintain production. For nine years there have been few importations of farm equipment as a combined result of import restrictions and the war, and the position is now serious. It is estimated that more than 5000 tractors and nearly as many other types of machinery—automatic pick-up balers, power mowers, combined side rakes and tedders, and harvesters and threshers are needed. Equipment promised by overseas manufacturers for delivery in New Zealand this year is only a fraction of this requirement, which is based on actual orders placed by farmers —some of them many months ago—with distributing firms in New Zealand.

The position is complicated by the fact that Britain has an export embargo on certain types of tractors and in any case could not guarantee the urgent delivery required by New Zealand farmers. The only other source of supply is the United States, but the fact that dollar exchange is involved means that some decision will have to be reached by the New Zealand Governments Importing firms in New Zealand believe that it would be possible to obtain the equipment in the United States. Supplies from U.S.A. There, have been in the past controls on exports from America by the U.S. Office of International Trade but there are indications that those controls will be lifted within a few weeks. That means that- an immediate approach must be made to the U.S. manufacturers before new export quotas are fixed by the manufacturers themselves. Moreover, one of the reasons for the deterioration of farm equipment in New Zealand is that tremendous increases in the production of foodstuffs were made by the farmers to comply with requests by America for New Zealand to feed the forces in the Pacific. That would be an agreement which it is thought would carry great weight in any approach to the U.S. manufacturers.

Today there is a demand for increased production, firstly, to feed Britain and a starving world; secondly, to increase New Zealand’s national income at a time when there is a growing demand for her produce and prices are high. But the farmers are emphatic that not only can production not be increased but that it will drop sharply unless immediate relief is given as regards the shortage of farm equip : ment.

Inundated With Orders

Importers throughout New Zealand report that they are practically inundated with orders for equipment that they have no hope of filling if the supply position continues as it is at present. They report also that the burden of attempting to repair worn-out machinery is becoming overwhelming. Not only is there a shortage of spare parts, but after a certain stage is reached in the deterioration of plant it costs so much that it is out of all proportion to the value of the machinery. Today a new tractor costs anything up to £I2OO, yet some farmers have spent that much or more in the past few years solely in repairs to tractors which should have been scrapped as worthless long ago. But the alternative to making those repairs was to reduce considerably the volume of production. Federated Farmers views the position as one of the most serious that has ever confronted the farming industry. They have been endeavouring for a long time to find a solution to the problem. They emphasise that it is a problem which affects every person in New Zealand, farmer or not, for without immediate action being taken the possibility exists of New Zealand’s exports of farming produce dropping alarmingly.