Farm Machinery Imports And Dollars

Chronicle (Levin), 20 July 1948, Page 7

Farm Machinery Imports And Dollars

Pfess 'Assoeiation)

(Per

CHRISTCHURCH, .July 19. "Bofore the Government accedes to auy pressiire from farmers to import any great vol'ume of farm macliinery from the Unitcd Stat.es, it should investigate tlioroughly the supply of farm ' machinery and the deinand for it," said the vice-president of the New Zealand Farm Implement Manufacturers ' Federation (Mr. T. H. La'wn), this morning, when commenting on a statemeixt xnade by the chairinan' 6f ihe actibn committee of Federated Farmers . (Mr. 11. G. -Buckiet'bn), on '.the* 'farm machinery vequircmen'ts in Now Zealand. Not much valiie could be placed On the survoy" beiug conducted by Federated Farmers becausC' the farxners were being asked to advise the organisatiou about tlieir requiremeats iii. certain categories and were xxot required to state tlieir iinmediate needs or that tliey were in a position to buy inachiiiery now, he said. " lf a survey were taken of the uumber of people in New Zealand wlio required a motor car, the result would be startling but. could not be taken as the Dominion 's actual motor car requiremeats, " Mr. Law n said. "The saiuc thing applies to farm machinery. Why not leave the matter in the hands of the people who know, the distributorsf ' ' Mr. Lawn said tliat relatively few heavy tvpe tractors had been imported (luri ng rocent years and there must be a shortage of machinery of this type. Llowover, the annual requiremeuts of these tractors would not be verv largie when coinpared witli tlie great- nurnber of ligliter tvpes used. Britisli manufacturers had achieved a high output of the ligliter wheeled type of tractors during the last two or tliree years and these were capable of drawing threefurrow ploughs. The most vital need was to save dob. lars, sanl Mr. Lawn. The increased food production that would be derived from auy large importation of farm machinery i>urchased witli dollars, would not compensate for the loss of dollars to Great Britain. On the othor Iianil, if sliips could be turned rouiul inore quickly in our ports and if other aspects of our internal economy were st raiglitened out so that tliere could be a greater distributioa of New Zealand produced farm machinery, the results would be more worthivhile.