THE GREED OF THE AGRICULTURAL. FARMER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 219, 4 June 1918, Page 6

THE GREED OF THE AGRICULTURAL. FARMER

Sir,—lt is the common belief of tUe> townspeople that the agricultural farmer: is a greedy, grab-all individual,' who is> making huge profits, and generally ex--f.ioiting tho rest of the community all. round. The following is a comparison of cost ol my farming operations for the veaw :.'JOB and 1917:- ' In 1308. In WIT.' Number of weeks' work paid for 177 110 £ s. A. £ s. ,i, Total amount of wages paid in putting in of crop ~. 258 0 ft 230 tl tt Average rato per worker per week ... 1' 9 1 2 110 Cost of rations per week 010 0 1 0 Ol Total average weekly wage per worker... 119 1 3 1 10! The rato of wages for harvesting in. these years were:— In 190 S. In 1017. Per Per hour. hour. 6. d. e. d< Binder drivers 10 2 0. Stookers 10 IK Carting in OS 1 (?• •Stackers 1 G 2 0 Grows 0 9 1 G Thatchers 10 2 0 Tho amount of work done in the two years was as follows:— In 1908. In 1917* Acres. Acres. Ploughing 1533 1180 Harrowing 2248 1817 Cultivating ■. 1231 . 772 Boiling 915 M Sowing 915 B3!)> Heaping „ 618 326; Harvesting 618 320 . In the comparison of work done, yov. ■ i"ill sec the great falling off in the an* lual amount of the work. This is at- . uibutable partly to the decreased effi-> i Money of the farm labourer, the best; • men having gone to the war. but chiefly ' to the impossibility of getting men . owing to the Government's policy of de- . pleting the farms of labour. Sir i Allen and the Hon. Mr. Mac Donald havo i .'.teen touring the country throughout . '.he last year, imploring the farmers to: • keep up the production of the country s to its utmost limit, as being most cssens tial. At the same time they moke it t an impossibility by taking every man > off the farms. Can anything be more - ''utile and ridiculous? Every other' I country has organised its labour and. r discriminated in its conscription. New Zealand takes the cake for crass stupid- , ity, and has done nothing but maddla I ilong in the same old haphazard way, Q icgardless of all consequences, Therß i rte two classes of the community who '■[ tia.nA out as facile prmceps in exploit- . :ng the country viz., labour and shipe ping, these two play havoc with any s 'hance tho farmer may have had in the* . aggregation of! profits. The fact is the farmer's life at the pre- '" sent time is anything but a happy one. He is singled out by tho ._ fiovernment for special exploitation in p taxation. Labour, owing to the Cfovp irnment's policy of ind'scriniinate con- • wiption, is every day becoming harder tc obtain and increasing in price, the ' rver-increasing demands of labour being e extortionate. Then you have the enormous increase in the prices of all farm ■ requisites, inability to get shipt ping space for our produce from which* o t can see no relief till the war i? over,. '- the consequent huge accumulation of all. >.

produce, utter stagnation of trade in; vhe chief products of the country, and upheaval of economic conditions.

The extraordinary thing io me is thfl antagonistic feeling which is displayed! by the townspeople against the farnjprs.. •'annofc they realise that their very '•xistenco is dependant on the primary •ndustries of the country, viz., the agricultural and pastoral community. If it were not for them could they live? No; they would 6tarve. In spite of which there is this feeling of antagonism, jealousy, or whatever you like to call it existing. Let me tell the towns-t-eople that if the war keeps on there :s a bad time coming for the farmers',, and incidentally for them. Owin; to •"he crass stupidity of the Government: depleting the country of agricultural -abourers, thousands of acres are emii* 1 out of cultivation. In the North Island, I am told, hundreds .of smiling bush farms, having been 'h-prived of their last man, are going- back to a ttate worse than their primeval one. In tlio 'South Island, through want of labour, also, thousands of acres are 'jeiug sown in grass, ar.d thousands of acres are in a deplorable slate of weeds for want of cultivation; and I say emI'haticallv that unless tho Government change their pohcy of indiscriminate conscription, organise labour, and discriminate in regard to tho essential industries, as all other countries have done, they will bring the country to a. ftate of economic chaos, and earn the-■yell-deserved opprobium of tho wholecountry.—l am, etc., H. D. VAVASOUR. Ugbrookc, Blenheim, May 31.