“PRODUCTION NOT FALLING”

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3254, 19 April 1943, Page 5

“PRODUCTION NOT FALLING”

(To The Editor) Sir, —In your correspondence column, under “Production Not Falling,” Mr James,. Thorn writes to give a set of figures to show that production is not falling. I happen to have received these figures within half an hour of train time, and I shall be away from the office for a considerable period on sub-provincial work, but I must take exception, to Mr Thorn’s use of figures. The resolution that he refers to alleges a heavy drop in production during the last two years. Mr Thorn gives figures showing 1940-41 as exceeding 194142, and he can hardly claim that 1942-43, which is one of the last two years, is not considerably below 1941-42. He says that 1940-41, the high figure, was due to climate. It was also due to a patriotic urge, and' the man-power difficulties that he. mentions were not so apparent then by any means as they are now. Some of the women who were working on the farms in those years are dead now. With, regard to tonnage exported, Mr Thorn uses figures of total ton- ; nage. To what extent has this meant a depletion of the flocks of the Do-, minion ? In ' other words, a reduction in capital ? Furthermore, to give the value of the total production of butter and cheese over the same fiveyear period, and to state that this i shows that income, that is to say, the • net return to’ the farfner after he has paid expenses, was over £3,900,090 more than in the. year before the war, is just to talk so much nonsense. It costs something- to produce butter and cheese, and it costs more to produce a bigger quantity than it does to produce a smaller quantity. lam afraid Mr Thorn is attempting louse figures rather unfairly.—- I am, etc., A..E. ROBINSON, Auckland Provincial Secretary, New Zealand Farmers’ Union.