Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1931, Page 8

Farming Column

CANADIAN TARIFF

The “Daily Star” of Toronto, Canada, in an edito'ial on November 4, entitle ! ‘'WhatDoes New Zealand Want?” said ;

The kind of preference Mr Bennett and his projectionist associates believe in is shown in his reply made some time ago to New Zealand's complaint that Canada had shut out her butter. The reply was that. New Zealand butter is “receiving a preference of 6 cents per pound over general tariff rates.” This sounds to high tariff people like fine and handsome treatment of the butter of a sister Dominion. The protectionist would ask : “How much preference, for goodness sake, would New Zealand expect, if she is not satisfied with 6 cents per pound on her butter?”

What does New Zealand want? She wants to sell butter here because that is what she has to sell, and she has been buying largely from Canada. The reply of Canada is that she will not buy New Zealand's butter; she will exclude it, but will write into her tariff a Customs tax 6 cents per pound less 'than the tax which excludes foreign butter. The New Zealander can butter his parsnips with the tine thought that while we do not buy from him we show him a handsome Imperial preference over foreigners from whom we do not buy. If the Empire can be knitted together by means of preferences which do not let goods in the high tariff advocates can cheer for preferences as heartily as. anybody else. If New Zealand is not .satisfied with the present situation, how would she like if -Mr Bennett were to double 'the general tariff again, which would leave room for giving her a larger preference still without letting her butter in? In the interests of Imperial unity our hgh 'tariff people are willing to go almost any length in this form of preference.

OUR ONLY MARKET

For the present at least Britain is our only market. A politician recently advocated renewed effort to find other

markets. But where are they? We were •building up a nice little trade with Eastern markets, but this connection is now very difficult to hold, and Australia, strange l to say, has a big advantage in her existing rate of exchange. Apart from that, the .East is hard up, like the rest of the world. Java’s staple products, sugar and tobacco, are oversupplied and very much reauoed in vaiue,' the same -with the tin and rubber in Singapore and the rice of Burma. 'lhe Chiii'cse tael, normally worth 2s 4ti, is now only worth about Is 3d. The •Australian exporter has an advantage of 30 per cent, in his drafts, whereas the (New Zealand exporter has only 8,1 per cent. However .small a price, wc cared to accent for our produce the Kaslero markets can, therefore, he of very little use at the present time, CONDITIONS AT HOME. After an absence of some eight months touring England and Scotian?,' Mr F. J. Nathan, of Palmerston North, has returned to New Zealand. While at Home, Mr Nathan made investigations into the state, of tile butter and the cheese markets and, in an interview, he made some general comments on both these questions. 'When he was in .England New Zealand cheese was being sold in the retail shops for 6d a 1b.,; Mr Nathan said, and that seemed to give •a pretty good indication of the poor prices which the farmers in the Dominion were receiving. At the' same time •fhei'e was a great deal of sympathetic support for New Zealand in the Old Country. He had toured as far north as Aberdeen and then to the other side of Scotland, and both butter and cheese he found to be well displayed in practically every town he passed through. 1

Mr Nathan said he thought there was a distinct betterment in Danish nutter and he expressed the opinion that New Zealand would do well to watch the question of competition with this butter very closely. In some parts of England Danish butter was exceptionally popular. It was of a very uniform quality and its sponsors were a very serious' competitor on the English market. Mr Nathan said that, unfortunately, he had heard a good deal of criticism of New Zealand cheese, more especially as to its quality. It certainly was not qui'.e so popular as New Zealand butter. Speaking of the conditions of business at (Home, Mr Nathan said he had found generally that it was far from flourishing, That was so particularly in the Midlands and in 'the north, where factory after factory avhs idle. Move recently, however, there had been encouraging improvements, in the position so far as the Lancashire cotton mills were concerned. Unemployment in these districts was exceedingly bad. •Speaking of horticulture, Mr Nathan, 'who himself is a well-known and highlysuccessful horticulturist, said he had at tended the Royal Show at Chelsea. There had not been a single poor exhibit at this show, which had again (proved that Itlie .English people, as horticulturists, would be very hard to excel.

AUSTRALIAN WHEAT. ■Shipments of wheat and flour from ■Australia during the 12 months ending .November 30 are expected, according to the Banking Record, to reach a total oi 4,150,000 tons. This will establish a new record. Chartering .for the new season has already started. South Australia has Chartered the largest number of sailing

ships for many years, and, in fact, every big sailer afloat to-day .seems to be heading for that State, which furnishes the most attractive business jn the world.

The new crops are making progress. Western Australia seems fairly assured of about 40,000,000 bushels. A fair estimate for South Australia is 45,000,000 bushels. Victoria is 'estimated at 35,000,000 to 37,000,000 bushels. In New iSouth Wales the latest Government figures indicate '50,000,000 bushels, although the ’trade reckons this is about 5,000,000 bushels too high. New South iWales, however, has just had a good rain, which will help Riverina materially Further rain throughout South (Australia and portions of Victoria would be very welcome. MID-EUROPE WOOL DEMAND. Until recently this season the bulk ot the wooi bought in Sydney by German operators .this year was purchased on account of mills in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and surrounding countries, confidence ... ,c nt in trading circles in Germany. Latterly, however, good orders have been received in Australia from 'German manufacturers, due to increased business in tops and other products. That devcfjopmoint, .in a country the position of which had caused considerable apprehension, can be accepted as an indication of the generally improved outlook in wool circles. The recent quotation of 25d for average 64 s tops in Bradford iputs the price of these semi-manufactures Id to ljd per lb. above the rates ruling throughout October and November, 1930. THE WOOL PRICE POSITION. Tt may not be out of place (says the Novemher Pastoral Review) to point out the fact that at the moment of writing the price fixed by the Commonwealth Bank for gold is £5 18s 9cl per standard ounce. The price quoted is at a premium of 52-1 per cent, on the normal price of cold which would be paid it Great Britain and Australia were on the gold standard. Current prices ruling' for

wool in Australian centres, therefore, are not necessarily world’s prices, and this is a point which all and sundry would do well to bear in mind when reviewing the present position of the •wool market. Circumstances have conspired to create a level of values which, if not altogether correctly describable as false, is admittedly an artificial one.

Vs to what the future holds in store, history atone will tell, but at the moment the wooi trade is divided into two camps. There are those who assert that such a. position cannot last lor long, and that the premium on exchange at

lleast anust decline, no irualttiw iiaf efforts may be made to maintain it, wish a corresponding decline ol value. •On the other hand, there are just a-'-many who hold that, while admjttiag-' the existing premium on exchange may gradually disappear, the departure ot Great Britain from the gold standard has created a new set of conditions that will hold the market steady at about existing levels, and possibly even higher. They argue that, on to-day’s values, the current Australian clip would not work out at more than lOd per lb. all round in Australian currency, and that if the premium ret erred to be taken into account, the world’s level of values for wool is still a low one.

The position is so complicated that the more one attempts to probe it the greater the difficulty in arriving at any definite conclusion ; but, from the point of view of the man in the street, it doe® not seem likely that any satisfaetoiy conclusion can be reached until the world’s trade shows an all-round matei - ial improvement. JUVENILE CALF CLUBS. Calf clubs are in existence in one or two districts, and have had an excellent effect in, stimulating an intei,est in good stock, and in the proper feeding and management of them, among farm boys and even girls, but unfortunately the movement has not been associated with the herd-testing movement, and therefore marked stock have hot been used. Pig clubs jhavc been proposed, and a poultry club wsis once established, and would have been a great success, seeing the enthusiasm of the members, had there been a qualified directing official available. Were there a proper scheme of agricultural training and lessons in the elementary principles of the rural sciences at our country schools, it would he possible to have animal clubs. It is understood that giving boys and girls an animal of their own to care and benefit from is the best means of inducing them to take an interest in farming and thereby keeping them on the land.