POSITION OF N.Z. FARMER

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21414, 5 March 1935, Page 12

POSITION OF N.Z. FARMER

UNIVERSITY LECTURER'S VIEWS INTERVIEW IN ENGLAND (/ROM OUR OWK COKRSSPONDEBT.) LONDON, February 2. Mr H. D. Dickinson, lecturer in economics at Leeds University, who has been "on exchange" at Auckland, has returned to Leeds, and has been interviewed by the "Yorkshire Observer." Mr Dickinson spoke of the position of the farmers in New Zealand, which, he said, was particularly serious. The price of wool had recently improved, but the price of butter-fat was still seriously low. The worst feature of this was that it was chiefly the small man who was engaged in dairy farming and, generally speaking, the wool was raised from fairly large estates. "These small men have put capital, mostly borrowed, into the land," he said. "They have gone into it with the assumption that England would take as much butter as they could throw into the market. The British Government's suggestions of quantitative restriction have caused bitter disappointment and an attitude almost of incredulity. "New Zealand feels that it deserves better treatment from England than the other Dominions who r-.ise high tariff barriers against this country. "Until recently, in both Australia and New Zealand, the dominating idea was that the country would take any amount of people if they went on the land. They would grow foodstuffs for which England would be an insatiable market. Now that England is talking about quotas and restrictions as soon as the period of the Ottawa agreement expires, that is no longer the case, and even if the existing rural population can maintain employment there is very little room for expansion." He added that although New Zealand was a low tariff country, a considerable number of secondary industries had flourished. There were about four woollen mills in the country, which produced goods of excellent quality, but they were dear, not because of technical deficiencies in production, but because a very small plant had to produce a very large range of goods. Mr Dickinson was welcomed back by the University Socialist Society, of which he is chairman, at a reception last night, at which Mr Arthur Greenwood, who is a former member of the economics staff of the university, also spoke.