A GOOD INCOME

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3286, 9 July 1943, Page 3

A GOOD INCOME

LABOUR PARTY’S VIEW ARTICLE IN STANDARD REPLY TO MR A. J. SINCLAIR

“When that man goes on a trip to the city, he will tell all his friends that he is making £700; a year and that he is on the point of buying a farm. He is a great nuisance to me.” 'This interesting admission is made by Mr A. J. Sinclair, secretary-man-ager of the Te Awamutu Dairy Company, at the conclusion of a story he told recently of a discussion he had with a sharemilker with a herd of 100 cows who had just secured a good contract on a 50-50 basis with a Cambridge farmer/ “With a good season,” the sharemilker told Mr Sinclair, “I should make £7OO next year.” And 'because the sharemilker made that, statement and refused to be convinced by Mr Sinclair that actually he was working only for the privilege ■of free board with his family and of helping them to spend £lO a week which they were earning as his assistants, Mr Sinclair said, “He is a great nuisance to me.” Mr Sinclair is one of the most persistent agitators against the Labour Government to be found in the dairy industry. He is especially antagonistic to the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. J. G. Barclay, Against whom he has campaigned on every possible occasion.

Accordingly, he chose the Northern. Advocate, published .in Whangareb the principal town in Mr Barclay’s electorate of' Marsden, as the papei in which to tell the story of the sharemilker who was a great nuisance to him because he refused to believe that he was not doing' very well indeed under the Labour Government’s guaranteed price policy. His Story The sharemilker, according to the conversation Mr Sinclair says he had with him, said that the cream cheques would bring in £l2OO and he would make £2OO from pigs and calves. That made £7OO for the owner and £7OO for himself. He did not employ any labour, but his wife and his son, who was 17 “and as good as any man,” helped- him in the shed. Mr Sinclair said he suggested that it would be more accurate if the sharemilker said that the three of them would earn £7OO, but the man replied: “What’s the difference? It all goes into the family purse, doesn’t it?” “ I told him,” Mr Sinclair comments, “that he was the type of man who gave me endless trouble when I explained to city people the difficulties the farmer was up against, and I asked him if he would let me examine his proposition on a business basis. - He

willingly agreed.” After going into the matter, Mr Sinclair presented him with a statement headed “Estimated receipts and expenditure for the 1943-44 season,” as follows: — “Total receipts: £7OO. Expenditure: Interest on capital, £5O; depreciation, £100; wages, £500; sundries, £5O; total £700.” The sharemilker, however, refused to be convinced by Mr Sinclair’s figures. Here is what Mr Sinclair said in the Northern Advocate: — When he (the sharemilker) had examined this for a minute or he said: — “Are you trying to tell me that I am working 70 hours a week for nothing?” ' “Certainly not,” I replied. “You have the privilege of free board with your family and' of helping them to spend the £lO a week they are earning/’ “That’s all rot,” he said. “I’m doing all right, and these figures re-

mind me of a statement I once heard that there are three kinds of lies—namely, lies, damned lies, and statistics'” “When that man goes on a trip to the city he will still tell all his friends that he is making £7OO a year and that he is on the point of buying a farm. He is a great nuisance to me.” So there we have the admission, in a signed article by Mr Sinclair, that the man who refuses to be bull-dozed into the belief that he is not doing well is a great nuisance to Mr Sinclair, the agitator against the Labour Government. What a strange confession to make in the public press’ Another Conversatjon Mr Barclay, the Minister of Agriculture, also had a talk with a sharemilker working under similar conditions to those reported by Mr Sinclair. So, after reading Mr Sinclair’s interesting story in the Northern Advocate, he sent along a report of his own conversation with a sharemilker. •Here it is:—

“Hullo, George, how are you getting on, still sharemilking?” “Yes, Mr Barclay, but on a 50-50 basis now, with my own herd.” “How are things going?” “Well, unofficially, I’m doing all right, although officially I’m out for an additional share of anything that’s going.” “Well, unofficially, give me the facts.” “ I have a herd of 100 milking cows which average 2201 b. fat, giving a gross return of £l5OO. In addition, I make about £2OO a year from pigs and calves. That makes ’ £B5O for the owner and £Bso‘ for me.” .“What labour have you got?” “Only my wife and my boy of 18.” “ Therefore the £B5O is the family income, not your own income?” “Yes, that’s right, but even on that basis it’s a pretty good income.” “Have you ever endeavoured to assess your own net income?” “Too right I have. I place the value of my herd at not less than £lOOO on which I allow interest at 5 per cent., say £5O a year. I’ve got a good herd and raise my own heifers and don’t need to buy outside stock to maintain my standard.” “Well, what other expenses have you got?” “ I find I have to allow £75 a year for benzine, depreciation, and requisites. In addition, I have to buy a new bull each year which usually costs me about £25. But against this, I usually have about 12 cull cows to quit, and they bring me in about £3 10s each, or £42 for the year. In addition, I have a businesslike arrangement with my family. I pay the boy £4 per week and keep, and my wife ‘£3 a week, though she is only in the shed for both milkings.”

“Wait a minute: let me calculate this out. Your total income is £850; in addition to that you have cull cow sales bringing in another £42, making a total of £892. Against this, you have interest \£so, a bull at £25, shed expenses at £75, total £l5O. You pay the boy £2OO a year and your w’ife £l5O. That totals £5OO altogether, leaving you £392 net for yourself.”

“That’s the position, Mr Barclay.” “Well, it seems to me you’ve got very little to complain about.” “ I’m Not Complaining ” “I’m not complaining, Mr Barclay, although as I said I’m prepared to take more if it’s given to me. The wife puts her income away-—at the present time she’s putting in to War Bonds, but after the war she plans to have her own little car, and I’ll say she deserves it. The boy’s saving his money too, and he and I plan to pool resources and buy a good farm some time in the future, which he can eventually take over’ and carry on.” “Of course, you’re working long hours, George.” “We’re all working long hours, MrBarclay, but you must remember this -—that, apart from the tie of the milking itself, we work the hours as it suits us, and that means a lot to a chap like me.”

“How do you think your conditions compare with the city worker?”- “ I’ll say definitely that the city worker is not anywhere neai my standard. In addition to my own net income of approximately £8 a week, my boy’s income of £4 and my wife’s of £3, we have a house, free milk, plenty of vegetables, firewood and a number of other perks. You can’t sell me the city idea on that basis.” “Well, unofficially, George, you must be a great nuisance to some

people who want to make out you are extremely hard done by.” , “Yes, I might be, but I don’t want to get things out of focus. When I go to these public meetings and hear speakers tell me what hardships I’m suffering for the moment I’m inclined to agree. But when I get home and quietly figure things out and take a look round the farm and herd, I don’t think I’m doing so badly, and I’m not going to make any unreasonable demands with things as they are. I reckon that if you start asking for too much, you might finish up by getting less than you already have, and that won’t suit me.”

“ I see you have published the statement made by Mr A. J. Sinclair on the ‘nuisance’ he thinks a sharemilker is who imagines that he is getting a good income from the herd he is milking. “Mr Sinclair’s statement was replied to by the Hon. J. G. Barclay in a recent edition of The Standard, and I am sendyou herewith the cutting in the hope that you will also publish Mr Barclay’s statement,” writes Thorn, M.P. for Thames in a letter to the Hauraki Plains Gazette referring to an article which appeared in the Gazette recently headed “Coining Money.”