The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1911. THE PRICE OF DAIRY FARMS IN LEVIN.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 31 October 1911, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAI L Y TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1911. THE PRICE OF DAIRY FARMS IN LEVIN.

Qrirn a •number of people who votv busy and reasonably prosperous in this county a few years ago are now unreasnn:il>ly well off .and hk'i i» trious no longer--living afar off, in luxury. They have sold their dairy farms at high figures to people who are willing to work hard and long and persistently to pay off big purchase moneys. Within fair hounds, no reasonable man objects to see an increase in the selling value of dairy hinds or agireulturnl farms. Where people are progressive, and open-eyed as to improved farming methods, higher revenues are yielded by their lands, and in turn these menu greater <-a.pac.ity to pay higher rents or increased purchase moneys. But to all such advances a fair limit must be set. If exorintnnt purchase prices are jjaid, or :ibu<)i-mally hi.'ib rents arc exacted the community's interests must suffer. It seems to us that in and around Loviu—and possibly further afield -the limit of land values has been reached, if not exceeded. In the old days of this town it. was nn axiom that the dairy company's

■■pav" ill' -Dili September sufficed to meet {'vvvy farmer's accrued debts for winter upl.ee]), while that of the '20tli October was free for use 4it .farmers' option. This latter condition naturally .gave a stimulus to local trade, and put heart into the .shopkeepers. Hut this year there hns been a noticeable diminution in the volume of October trade at Levin. What is the cnii.soP We have our own opinion that the chief cause is the great amount of money requiring to be paid 'by new farmers who have bargained to give too high a. price for their lands. Tin's 1911 season has been one oi' the best that dairyiarmers have experienced locally lor many years past, and to-day the whole county is billowy with leagues of green grass that must yield tons upon tons of good' yellow butter nnd ultimate golden gains. And this season's local price for butter—equal to £C) per ton in London —has never been excelled locally for a .season's output. Outwardly, everything indicates prosperity and increasingly good times. Yet the picture is deceptive, for in reality trade is cramped and shopkeepers grow fainthearted. Trafficking in farms—with successional rises as buyer follows buyer and .seller after seller departs—this is the primary cause of our present comparative depression. Dairyfarmers should realise that the limit of profitable values for dairying country has been reached— locally, at least. When a man takes up land under such con-, ditions that from three to five years' constant exertions are necessary before he can have a. penny to spend for anytihing -beyond bare necessaries of life, that man is doing injustice to three; parties: himself in a minor degree, his wife and children in a greater degree, and the community in general in a major degree. And the extent of the injury becomes the deeper because in the majority of instances the extraordinarily high purchase moneys are paid to absentees. The subject is one of such importance to the town >and district that we shall ibe pleased to find room for any correspondent's letter on the subject, even though to do so may mean the Shutting out of political correspondence. Tlie subject is as lively and of at least ias much importance as iany direct political matter.