Farmers and Exchange

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19987, 12 July 1939, Page 16

Farmers and Exchange

Sir,—'“C.P.H.” thinks that as the farmers have had the benefit of the 25 per cent exchange premium for some years that this is proof that the Government can -give -the farmers substantially more than our produce brings overseas. If this is so, I wish the Government would add another 25 per cent lor its own use in lieu of our heavy taxation so that it could carry on the affairs of the country and its social experiments without any assistance from me. But I ’noticed that while Chang the magician could produce money from nothing he still wanted what he required for -his own use from us at the door. The milkman who has 100 gallons of milk and supplies his customers with 125 gallons of .milk and water may be said to supply his customers with substantially more than he receives from his cows, but not in nutritive value. The idea that farmers should get £N.Z.l2sifor every £IOO sterling worth of produce looked all right when it was first introduced, 'but we soon found in purchasing things—and that is what a farmer uses money for—£N.Z.l -would not go ns far as the £1 we were accustomed to when the exchange -was about par. The money was quite good for paying the mortgagee his interest, but when it came to buying imported goods the shopkeepers seemed to -think that £N.Z.133 Gs Bcl was the correct price to charge for what they had formerly sold for £IOO. So that, the farmer found that what he gained on the swings he more than lost on -the roundabouts. Local goods also went up a bit and we saw the urban population was conscientiously passing on to the farmer any part of the exchange burden that fell on it. Believe it or not, simply taking £IOO and calling it £-N.Z.125 does not make us any wealthier. The farmers have had a reduction in mortgage principal and interest under the relief legislation, they have received high prices from produce

sold overseas for three years, they have had the 25 per cent exchange premium of which “C.P.H.” speaks, and they now have a -Royal Commission to

inquire into their difficulties. The fact is that what is given to them with one hand is taken away with another. FARMER.