Farming Column

Hokitika Guardian, 16 December 1933, Page 8

Farming Column

FARMERS' NEWS AND NOTES

From data supplied by the N.Z. Government Statistician’s office, the following table of index figures of manufacturing costs in 1932 has been compiled :

United Kingdom: 87. (Base 1924100) Board of Trade. U.S.A.: 101.47 (Base 1913100) U.S.A, Dept of Commehce. Canada: 103.5 (Base 1913100) Official Bureau of Statistics. Germany: 11 (Base 1913100) N.Z. Government Statistician. New Zealand 132.7 (Base 1913 100) N. Z. Government Statistician.

The Farmers’ Union maintains that the high index figure for New Zealand is largely due to: — ity of factories producing similar goods : e.g. 244 clothing and waterproof; 72 1 boot and shoe factories, 23 hosiery! factories, and 12 woollen mills, . (b) Want of efficiency, due to wide range of manufacture in the same industry: 1 e.g. most of our woollen mills manufact- j ure all kinds of woollen goods from blankets to sox. The Farmers’ Union contends that factory overhead expenses would ,bc| considerably reduced through the removal of protective tariffs, and their necessarily accruing costs in manufacture. If our secondary ihdustries were overhauled and rationalised and their output specialised and standardised, there would l>e no need fpr protection other than that of distance from the British manufacturer. v ■ •*•**••*

, fn A reply from the Farmers’ Union; fhat tl ie present system of changing j number-plates of motor vehicles an- <) nually be abolished, the Transport Department considers that the numberj plate system is the most effective so far devised for ensuring that the annual taxation on a motor .vehicle has j 1 been paid. The annual mumber-pjlate. land license fee is new an integral parti j of the scheme of compulsory insurance | under the Motor-Vehicles Insurance l (Third Party Bisks) Act, and the lat- | ter fact alone would justify a retent--1 ion of this system, owing to the cheap 1 method which it provides—2s 6d ani nually—of ensuring that the Thirdj party risk premium has been paid. The Police Department is also very strohgly in favour of the system owing to the facility which it provides for the ready tracing of the owner of any motor car. j j The annual change of the number- 1 'plates ensures that the registering of' cars and owners is reasonably well up-. , to-date. I **-*.*. j New Zealand is not suited and never j will be suited, to mass production, j The domestic market is too small to j absorb commodities produced pn a max- | imum efficiency scale,, while export j possibilities are negligible at present. j because of our high cost of production, j Wages are high, and the efficiency of 1 labour and management in manufacture ' ing industries does hot seem to be adequate to the task of modern producion. Heavy plant has to be imported [ from Britain, inteynal transport is I costly, motive power is relatively dear, I and the country has a heavy overI head for rates and taxes. The Farmers’ Union . feels that it is inadvisable to foster here industries that can be j economically conducted only on a mass j production basis. It would be preferable jto concentrate our industrial efforts j where we have a natural advantage, 1 and exchange our surplus for similarly produced goods from abroad, especially Britain'. The tariff policy of the Dominion should be re-direoted with a view to carrying out this policy and reducing such tariff privileges as are uneconomic. If we want to sell in the British market we have to assist, purchasing power tof our customers by also buying in that market.

A short time ago the Farmers’ Union joined in a petition with the Associated Motorises Petrol Company to Parliament asking that the Government fix a minimum price for petrol as it was felt that the major oil companies would first strangle the Associated Motorists and then raise their prices. The petitions were considered by the Indusries and Commerce Committee of the House who reported thus:—

1. That the recent progressive fall in prices was due mainly to combination on the part of the major oil companies with the object of crushing the Associated Motorists Petrol Coy. Ltd. 2. That the present selling prices are uneconomic and ar e likely to result in destroying competition among sellers, thus bringing about monopoly. 3. That such monopoly will probably result in substantially increasing prices to consumers. 4. That in th e public interest the petitions should be referred to the Government for immediate a nd most favourable consideration • with a recommendation that special legislation that be enacted to control selling prices, or in the alternatvie that the powers provided in the Board of Trade Act, 1919, be Invoked for that purpose.

For several .years the Farmers’ Union has been asking that the regulations governing motor-vehicles be amended in the direction of exempting from registration and heavy traffic fees all farm trmclors. used in hauling implements necessary to farming operations or used in the haulage of farmers’ produce to and from railway sidings. The Motor Vehicles Act. 1924. exempts farm tractors from registration if those tractors are used for farm work on the farm,' but when farm work is being done out-i side the farm, e.g. cartage of manures etc. from a railway station to the farm, then tractors used in such work become

liable for registration, and :: nb rebate oh petrol used can tbe claimed. Memo: A tractor towing farm implements along a road e.g. a reaper and binder, or 'a chaff-cutter is not liable for registration.

Judge Stringer held in the case Bransgrove v. Archer, 1926, that a motor-tractor proceeding along a road to or from -a garage for the purpose of being repaired was not a motor-vehicle “used” within the meaning of the Act, and consequently the owner was not held liable for registration. With regard to heavy traffic fees these ai’e not payable if the tractor is n°t in excess of two tons weight. If the addition of •a trailer makes the weight of the tractor and trailer more than two tons, heavy traffic fees must be paid. ** # * '

To a request from the Farmers’ Union that the Government be urged to bring down legislation to enable drivers’ licenses to be renewed by post, the Transport Department replied that provision in the regulations already existed to enable drivers’ licenses to be renewed by post. It was the intention of the Department io place recommendations before the Government which would give greater flexibility to the granting of drivers’ licenses. ** * * In their report on the Australian tariff, the “big five” economists, viz. iProfs. Brigden, Copland and Messrs iDyason,. Giblin and Wickens, estimated that protected manufactured goods cost the consuming public of Australia about '£26,000,000 more per annum than the same goods could be imported duty free. No account was taken of the added price of imported goods. The Farmers’ Union estimates that about £18,000,000 extra are paid by the consumer of this Dominion through protective tariffs and their effects on local prices. ** * * The first Wellington wool sale has come and gone, leaving.a most pleasant taste in the mouths of sheepfarmers in the Southern end of the North Island. Is is expected that on “pay-out day” £300,000 will be involved in the sqiiaring up. A panel of. about 60 buyers faced the auctioneer’s rostrum,' and, although many firms did not enter into serious (Competition, keen competition was evinced when a g6od class of fine wool was being offered. The top price of the day was 23d a lb. for Southdown

wool grown by Messrs A. and J. Gray, of iMasterton, who also topped last year’s first sale with the same class of wool at 12£d er lb- Taking the sale all round, there was a rise of 100 per cent, on all . grades, but any wool well got up brought better results. Last year a cross-bred wool brought 3§d, ■but at the recent sale the same clip brought 9d. French and German buyers were keen, on on pieces and bellies, prices for which oscillated around 7|d to llld. Bales' of wool which averaged £6 3s lid at the December sale last year are expected to average about £l3 this year. .## * * A tariff,will not icreat new industries. our and capital, and a tariff can divert these from one channel to another, but cannot calf them into being. The very fact of diversion implies loss,' because we are artificially moving, by tariff legislation, labour and capital from where it would naturally settle if left alone, to where the law. bv giving a bounty at the expense of the non-pro-teeted interests in the community, causes capital artificially to go. It is true that industries 'from outside may be induced to settle ins’de the tariff walls. This, However, will not help bur local manufacturers. It will only •build a . new competition against them 'in the local' market, and in any case ;it is brought about only .at the cost lof a hierher price level resulting from the tariff, and is a burden which we could avoid if we employed our energies t 0 the best advantage a.nd bought our Supplies of manufactured goods from .abroad. “Making work” is no valid argument. If that were so earthquakes would be a blessing, since they make plenty of work. Our aim should be to concentrate our resources where they will produce most wealth, and barter spur surplus for the surplus of other countries similarly engaged.