THE AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3047, 7 April 1917, Page 16

THE AGRICULTURAL AND PASTORAL INDUSTRY

■ GRAVITY OP THE PRESENT POSITION. ' . Sir,—On reading IKb utterances throughout the country of Sir James Allen and tha Hon. Mr. MacDonaß on various agricultural "and pastoral problems, one cannot fall to %3-tftfucii with the fact that neither of these gentlemen seem to realise the true state of affairs. In the "Weekly Press" of March 21, Sir James Allen is reported to have said that it seemed to Mm a national necessity at the present time to keep all farms going at their normal stockcarrying and grain-growing capacity in order -to maintain the Dominion's' output of food-stuffs, .and he urges farmers not to allow their patriotic sensitiveness to. .debar them .from appealing/to tho.. MinTary Service Board tor exemption when it is necessary to do «Q. ~ The Hon. Mr. Mac Donald has been ■with characteristic energy. touring the country trying to induce farmers to put in 250,000 acres of wheat, and appealed to thoir patriotism to do so. Following on Mr. Mac Donald's address to the A. and P. Association's annual meeting in Christchu'rch on March 22, I .pointed out to him that it was not a question of patriotism, but ability, and that the farmers were .unable to put in wheat because they could not get the necessary labour to do so. I also stated that in my opinion, not another ■ agricultural labourer should be allowed to leave the country, and all the speakers after me endorsed my views. Mr. ' Mac Donald, in replying, said that so long as a farmer gave a definite assurI ance that a man was wanted,to grow wheat that man would be exempted, | showing clearly that be utterly failed t to grasp the situation. Firstly, in the name of all that is wonderful, how | can a farmer apply for exemption for a man if he has not got one? Secondj ly, Mr. Mao Donald will not exempt any ' farm labourer unless for wheat-grow-. \' in". What, then, are the otherfarm- ! erf to do for labour, who have no. land suitable for growing wheat? Sir James Allen very sensibly says (as before herein quoted) that he considers it a national necessity to keop up the production of the country to its normal condition. : Mr. Mac Donald refuses to allow the farmers any men to <ro so, and Sir James Allen acquiesces 1 In the last three weeks or so.-both Mr. Lloyd George and Mr.' Bonar Law have, in the House of .Commons, emphatically stated that in the present state of things the supply of produce to the Empire was of more importance than men. • , , , , In a letter to Thb Dominion dated August 3, 1916, I pointed out that several of the leading papers in. England had stated that they considered the colonies had sent enough men fo the front, and that they would do more service v to the Empire if they kept the men at home and increased their output of produce, as the few men they could send, would be more than compensated for by the increased supplies' of produce. I stated that the time had come when sending more men would be at the expense of production, and I prophesied that if proper steps were not taken the production of the country would seriously deteriorate, This prediction has been verified, (bee Mr Newman's • address at the open- • ing of the Marten A. and P. Bhow . early in March). Now I venture to sav most emphatically that if drastic steps are not taken by the Government immediately,-the production of this Dominion will fall off in the onsumg vear in a far greater measure than,Jast year Tho people of this Dominion will suffer b.v the increased cost 0 f llyin" and Britain and her Allies will suffer from the decreased supply of produce to a deplorable extent. Tho Government of this country should wake up and face the position with energy and common-sense. It is no good going in for "wild cat" schemos, such as supplying . farmers with traotion-ploughs, one farmer, helping another, and such like nonsense. By tho time they can get out traction plants the seeding time would be gone, And as for farmers co-operating and helping ono another, little good can be done in that way. It is computed that 13,000 mon'of military ago have been enlisted from the agricultural community, and about the same number from tho pastoral. It is also calculated that it requires one man for tho working of every sixty-sevon acres of crop; theroforo-to put in tho 250,000 acres of wheat that Mr. Macdonald states tho country requires, would take 3700 men alone. 'The number of labourers employed in agricultural la- , bour (of military age) in 1911 was about 28,700. Of these «bont 13,000 havo been enlisted, ' leaving- abouC (15,700.. It does not therefore take .'.„..a]oiie to realise what an enormous

loss introduction must take place this year if Something is not done. The Government will say probably that they have sot up a National Efficiency Board to look after the whole matter (and it is a very admirable body), but comes about two years too late, and boforo they can collect and boil down the mass of evidence they will receive, it will be too late to bo of use this year. The time for putting in cereals is the next three months, and every week that the dearth of labour goes on means a loss of hundreds of acres of cereals to the Dominion,'and the same applies to green crops for feeding sheep. Where is tho food for fattening sheep and lambs to come from next year? But it is no use particularising, the shortage of labour applies to every part of the agricultural and_ pastoral industry. In order to mitigate' (I don't say save) the disaster that must ensue to tho Dominion and tho Empire, the Government must not only not enlist any more men from the agricultural and pastoral community, but must return to the land all the agricultural and pastoral labourers now in camp. In this connection the Christohurch "Sun" of March 23, in a sub-leader, has a suggestion which I beg to commend to the consideration of the Government. It says the military authorities might very well give ploughmen and teamsters now undergoing their training, extended leave, so long as they were doing farm work. I would add that the rate of wages should also be fixed by tho Government, and that the principle should bo applied to all classes of agricultural and pastoral labourers. There is no more vital and important question atthis time for tho Empire or the Dominion than the production of produce, and it is a question which must bo faced at once, and quick and lively, or disaster must inevitably ensue. Sir, if I havo' seemed in this letter to unduly criticise Sir James Allen and Mr. Mac Donald, or to approach the subject in a spirit of cavil, j beg them to accept my assurauco that it was far from my intention. Tho whole country realises their collossal energy and patriotism, and in writing as I have, I have been inspired by the hope that I havo been able (as a farmer of some fifty years' experience) to place the situation bofore tho Government clearly, and in a light wh'ich I am inolined to think they have not quite realised, and the gravity of tho subject must bo my excuse—l "am, etc., r H. D. VAVASOUR, Blenheim, April 5. .. , ■:■•''