WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 December 1930, Page 7

WELLINGTON NEWS

THE FARMER’S PLIGHT. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, November 28. Witn butter at 104 s per cwt, wool at 6jd per lb and lamb at 7d the farmer is in a pitiable plight. It is doubful if a single farmer in the country will be able to show any sort of profit this season, on the contrary losses will be the experience of the majority. Agriculture is the oldest industry known to mankind, and because of its age it seems to have a familiarity to all. The seed is planted and the sower waits for nature to do the rest. In other industries the products have to be watched and fashioned at almost every stage, nature rendering no Assistance. Because the sowing of seed is so simplewe- are all apt to believe that any man in almost any walk of life has merely to go on the land and call himself a farmer to be a farmer, and so periodically we talk of putting men on the land.

That experiment was tried with soldiers’ settlements, and the country lost heavily. Wo are still paying interest on the money borrowed for soldier settlements. The farmer’s ..business is a long term one. The shopkeeper turns over his stock three or four times a year, but not so the farmer, he has to wait for practically twelve months to get in his profits or count his losses. His is a hazardous business, for he has always the weather to reckon with and the mortality of his live stock, If those favour him he has still to reckon with the competition of farmers of other countries, and this perhaps is the most troublesome of the lot. There is obviously a great deal of uncertainly in farming because it is a long term job. Notwithstanding all this farming pays when taken up with intelligence and adequate resources. The latter seems to be one of the essentials, for the man that lias not the command of adequate capital can scarcely hope to make a success.

The history of fanning since tlie outbreak of war on the morning of /August 4, 1914, is an interesting one',. As the 1 war progressed and wore, and more became involved the fewer men were left to carry on the farming operations In the belligerent coiintries, and that at a tinip when the demand for farm products • Vaa increasing at • a rapid rate. By restrictions and-the rationing of the civil population the available supplies were innde Sufficient. When the war ended the soldiers shod their kliakee uniforms : apd pocketed their gratuities there was money to spend and money in abundance, inflated paper money. In ,1919-20 there was a veritable boom and if one cares to, look up the records lie would find that commodity prices were very high. Tin -was about £3OO a ton, wheat nearly two dollars a bushel and butter was hovering around 200 s per cwt. These giddy prices could not hold, but a great many people thought they would, and believed a new era had damned in which old economic laws had to be scrapped. That slump of 1920-2.1 was the first indication of duflntion, the natural working of economlo laws. Agricxrltura! prices dropped with a thud, and this was' so sudden and so opposed to the views expressed by unsound business man and brainless politicnns, that farmers felt justified in 'asking for assistance to tide them over what was believed to be a temporary slump, and they were assisted. Pools, boards, subsidies, bounties, tariff restricts, monetary advances and what not were generously applied. To improve the conditions of agriculture facilities for agricultural credit were mulf’plied, for in N.Z. there has developed Rural Credit Association, Long Term Mortagage Companies and State advances, to say nothing of the numerous private mortagage companies. The main result of this expansion of agricultural credit has been an excessive increase in mortgage debt. ; This expansion of agricultural credit stiffened up the price of land, urban, suburban and country, and motgages were based on those * inflated values, the cost of living remained high and wages kept pace. The weak point was that the same or very similar expedients were being put into operation ip other countries, stimulating production on the one hand and reducing the purchasing power of the community on the other by increased taxation and restriction.

Producing countries to preserve, their markets for. their own producers clapped on duties, and surplus products had to be dumped anywhere where there was the least opening an any price. To-day the value of farm products is below the cost, of production and the plight of the farmer is a serious one. To tell the farmer not to be pessimistic, or to indicate that his financial troubles are 'psychological will not help him, something practical must be done. We managed to postpone the slump of 1920-21, but the present one cannot be rooted out easily. Something practical and sound economically must be done.