A GROWING DEMAND

Hokitika Guardian, 23 June 1932, Page 2

A GROWING DEMAND

GflT BACK ON LAND

THE NEW DRIFT.

A statement that many ex-farmers, who ’eft the land in more prosperous times !:o follow trades 'aud professions

in the towns, are now returning to farming occupations, was made by a prominent Ha-tings land agent in an interview this week. Those men. ha said, were of t’je very best type, both a.j citizens and a.s farmers, and they would do a great deal to assist in bring ing a rj.urn of prosperity to this country.

At least locally, added the agent, sec-ond-class Laid was not finding a market at all, but there was a ready market for first-class. land, especially in small areas. Families to-day were taking up ema’l properties and working them themselves. They could not afford to employ outside labour ho any appreciable extent, and: there was little of the former practice of buying a farm and engaging someone ofs© to do the work on it. 'xaa owners themselves were performing all the liecci sar.y labour. Recently his firm had sold a considerable number of what might be called oneman farms—properties of 100 acres carrying 50 cows, or 80 acres with 30 cows, bi’ 200 acres with 30 cows and 150 owes. Til most cases, dairy farms were wh;i; was sought after, So far as Hastings and its neighbourhood w-'.s concerned, first-class land had not dropped in price to any perceptibledegree. During the J.ast three years, the farmer had found that by exercising closer personal supervision, by taking a greater personal share in th e work of the farm, and by the use of more scientific farming methods, he had reduced expenses while increasing his production, and i:hus' hacl fully maintained the ■value of his property. In many instances local businessmen had owned farms, and had lived in the towns while leaving their sons or manages to run their properties. Many of those men had now given up their homes in town, and by going back to live on their farms they had made a considerable saving in their personal expenses, and indirectly added to the value of their farming properties. There was nbThing j isurer that that the price of second-class land would have to come down, the j agent added. It had always been too j dear, and.no one could afford to farm: it at present costs. The present was j not a' time for experimenting wii;h land ! of poor quality. The application of j science and business methods to good J land was what paid in these days. At present there was a good deal of culling out of farm properties, and whereas at one time a land agent could sell almost anything, now it was an enrtreiy different story. “Agents can find a good market for any number of one-man farms,” the ,speaker' concluded, “but the prices and terms mud be iw- finable. It does not rest entirely with the price, however. The terms must be reasonably good. People to-day will not consider the •short-term mortgage of three or froe years at from .six to seven per cent. The short-term mortgage is gone forever. The buyer wants at least from s'Sven to ten years, and wo are coming back very fast to bhe good old five per cent, interest.”