A FARMER'S COMPLAINT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2959, 23 December 1916, Page 10

A FARMER'S COMPLAINT

. Sir,—The Farmers' Union requires to bring before the military authorities the necessity of not allowing , experts to leave New Zealand at the present .juncture. In the Hawera district at, the nresent time have been called up in the ballot! some of our most efficient dairy producers, men who are producing double, if not three times, the -produce

— . 1 a hired man would ill the absence of the owner. At the front these farmers are equal only to one man. Butter as present is costing Is. 6d. per lb. to produce, and if the production is reduced by half it means butter will be" worth 3s. in the near future. Certain it is that every efficient producer of food is as vital as men, guns, and ammunition. 'l'he unfortunate part-is'the most efficient have volunteered already, and such a few are loft. We in- Tara- '. naki are doing our best with o'ur womenfolk and children audi machinery. Our husbands, sons and brothers at, thte front (many not to return), fighting to prevent the Huns' treating the Homeland and our own homes as another Belgium, Peace, indeed,, there can be no peace whilo Germany is still in existence. We must all do our best, men, women, and children, hut there is no' question .as• to ..what -is the .best under the present conditions. We sea it every day on our farms, with the kind of labour available at-present. It applies with equal force to our. tradesmen. : :A• blacksmith in'Hawera 'has been called up—a real tradesman.' Any kind of .farm machinery never comes amiss to him. and in these days machinery ij? a good part of. the ;farm implements. If ;it is only a mower knife that is broken, -if you liavo to lose..time, alone, to say nothing about paying the blacksmith's charges two or three time 3 to mend tlio fame knife, it is a great loss to the producers. Weather condK tions have a lot to do v.ith .successful production. and now the hardest-worked: workers/havo a special tax of from-two to tenpounds per month, to each family, whi),- working from 4 o'clock in the morning to 8 o'clock at night, to cheap-butter to the luxurious - nonproducers. The .curses were both loud! and: deep from the stragglers the other dav -when, they saw the amounts that ■had been taken off their- hard-earned monev. Farmers don't begrudge anything" they can do ; and are doing, toiling and working, men, women, aud 'children, for, all :t!ioy are able -to help, do our bit for our m thg Homeland and at the front; but to he punished because .we are, industrious and frugal, going without many things that we would like, and paying from 50 to 300 per cent, for what we are compelled to buy to keep up tion, is more, than the "downtrodden butter-fat producers can, agree,witb. 1 am, ° tC "sTIII)GGLING FARMER. : Taranaki, December 18, 1916. . .