“Friends of the Farmers.”

Hokitika Guardian, 14 February 1922, Page 4

“Friends of the Farmers.”

(Lyttelton Times). ' Those people who are trying to support tfib "dclilkiihf that the Reformers are “the friends of the farmers’’ would do well to read the newspapers. They would discover that according to current the worst-treated people in New Zealand'are'the fanners. They are the victims of conditions due to had government—the conditions that oppress theni including the dearness of land, the high price of money, the ineflrcieney and costliness of the railways, : and the direct and indirect effects of 1 burdensome taxation, the taxation being largely occasioned by incompetent ,‘administration. ' the Reformers were the friends of the farmers it would he reasonable to’ expect, in Mr Massey’s tenth year of office, that the farmers would have good ‘ reasons for considering themselves the most 'fortunate people in New Zoaland. Instead of that, it is plain that they consider themselves the most unfortunate, as every daily newspaper proves. A sample of this feeling is given by a correspondent, signing himself “A Farmer,” writing in the “New Zealand Herald.” lie gives two specific instances where practical farmers, offering ample security, have been unable to obtain financial assistance, although offering to pay 7 per cent interest. The advances are required to enable these settlers to develop their properties and increase production. The correspondent sensibly remarks that “a Government worthy of the name would easily grasp the fact that ruin stares any country in the face that fails in its duty to the primary producers,” and he urges that money at reasonable rates is absolutely essential to the development of a new country like this. “A 1* armci goes on to say: “I have taken a keen and active interest in the well are ot ' New Zealand for over twenty years, and while I never held a brief for Sh Joseph Ward I am absolutely certain that with that gentleman as Minister for Finance New Zealand would enter into an era of prosperity in spite of its huge debts.” Here is a farmer who judges by results after twenty years, and his opinion is that New Zealand would have prosperity instead of—well, what it has got, if Sir JosepTi Ward instead of Mr Massey presided over the national finances.' And he is right. The whole of the Liberal regime, in' which Sir Joseph Ward took always a leading part, was an unbroken record of assistance to the farmers. The Liberals found land for settlement, provided cheap money, created the dairying industry and generally improved the conditions of tin farmers to an amazing extent, -..ey similarly benefited all classes—by democratising government and education, by promoting industrial peace, adjusting taxation, and improving the circumstances of the whole community in a great variety of directions. The Liberals are the friends of the farmers liecau.se they are the friends of th« people. The Reformers, pretending to he the special friends and protectors of the farmers, as against the community, have succeeded in less than a cade in producing conditions whicn make sensible farmers anxious to get rid of the Mnsse.vites and flourish again under Liberalism.