The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1931. THE FARMERS’ VIEWPOINT.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 June 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1931. THE FARMERS’ VIEWPOINT.

Tub farming class which veries its views at the Union gatherings, had a good spokesman in the person of Mr .]. | D. Kevin, the Otago President, who delivered a very comprehensive address last week on the difficulties farmers as a whole have to face. It was natural that at such a gathering the. speeches should be chiefly related to the serious position of the primary industries and to the influences that have brought it about, Concerning j the causes of the depression, and con- j corning, in particular, the extent to which ;i. cure is at the disposal ol I aim- j ers themselves, the opinions of lead- | ers in the farming community have j differed widely. Indeed, since, by com- I iiion consent, the depression cannot he ascribed entirely to any single facto 1. what tends to distinguish one diagnosis from another is the relative weight attached to the various elements in a complex aggregate of causes. Thoic is no reason, therefore, for surprise hi the fact that the views put forward by several competent sneakers during the past month were by no means wholly in agreement. At the opening of the Conference of the. Otago Farmers Union, Mr Kevio broke fresh ground when he ignored the popular idea of an industry thrown out of gear by influences over which it had no . control. ami lard strong emphasis on the degree to which farmers themselves may he held respousil.de for the troublous times they are at present experiencing- He adopted a bold course

when lie reminded the Conference tliax the sheet anchors of agriculture—and lor that matter of the nation as a whole—were still the two old-fashioned virtues of industry and thrift. Only by the scrupulous, ha lam ing of national and private l hu.'lget-s could they expect to emerge safely from the financial morass in which thev were floundering .It is pc spile, iwmsklers a Puikhljh paper, that many people will not take kindly to the severe criticism which is .implied in his references to the need for rigid economy and a return to the simple, thrifty life that made it comparatively easy for farmers, buffeted by misfortune, to recover even at a time when profits were unstially low and losses frequent. Nevertheless, it cannot he questioned that days of unprecedented prices and high returns have, as Mr He vie suggests, brought into being a “spending money farming’’ and thrown aside “the quiet, steady agriculture of slow-moving appliances and healthy, cautious farmers, who carried on their business on low expenditure and long credits.” It is nor. beyond the range of possibility that the people of New Zealand may yet have temporarily to endure even harder times than those through which they are passing to-day, and it will be all to the good if they are com-’ pleled by circumstances to adjust expenditure and standards to the existing crisis. This will he unpalatable, and must always he so until human nature changes, hut jt is difficult to see any other way by which the complicated and interwoven problems confronting the nation c;fn lie practically and effect, ively approached. This country has not been slow in the past to lace a recognised emergency, although it may sometimes be slow in recognising one. and there would appear at the present time to he a need for educating the people up to a reluctant acceptance of the fact that changed conditions demand greatlv altered standards of H' -- ing and expenditure. The first step in real roeunerative effort is economy and reduction of cost, and there is goon reason, therefore, why the views expressed by Mr Kcvie should receive the attentions even ol those who may not he in lull agreement with them.