RAILWAY FREIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 153, 2 December 1938, Page 4

RAILWAY FREIGHTS

EFFECT ON FARMERS

The increase made in railway freights would add to the burden of costs already placed upon the farming community, the Dominion secretary of the New Zealand Farmers' Union (Mr. A. P. O'Shea) said when commenting on the increases announced. The cost of haulage to and from the farm would go up, he said. "It means," said Mr. O'Shea, "that the cost of superphosphate, for instance, will be increased, as will the cost of other essential materials required by the farmer in his business. It also means that the extra railage costs will be deducted from the farmer's returns for his wool, his fat stock, and his other produce. As ,the increase applies also to road service freights it simply means a general all-round increase in farm costs. "This will not help us to attain the increased production which the Government is asking of all sections of the community and, so far as the sheep farmer is concerned, the increases come at a very bad time. The Government should be lightening his costs and not increasing them. Transport is a fairly big item and an important one for farmers, and the news of the increases will not make very pleasant reading for them in view of the prospects of falling prices for their produce."