The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY* NOVEMBER 25, 1926. WHAT THE FARMER WANTS TO KNOW

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12613, 25 November 1926, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY* NOVEMBER 25, 1926. WHAT THE FARMER WANTS TO KNOW

The Minister-in-charge, the Hon. A. D. McLeod, made an interesting speech at the opening of the annual conference of the Association of New Zealand Chambers of Commerce. Mr McLeod is Minister for Lands also, and a stalwart champion of the rights and needs of the man on the land. It was only natural that, in addressing such an audience yesterday, he should emphasise the necessity for a proper appreciation of the farmer’s difficulties. Commerce feels that the farmer is rather a pampered person. The farmer, in his turn, is convinced that city interests are getting off too lightly, while his class pays the piper. In order to drive home his point, Mr McLeod had a tilt at “city agents and such ‘boosters’ ” who are for ever urging men “to go out and be the ‘backbone’ of the country.” According to the Minister, the farmers’ production costs have risen ioo per cent, at least, and their returns represent the pre-war scale. In the circumstances, the farmer wanted to know a number of things, and he looked to the city critics for the answers. For example, he doubts whether it is necessary for the “city newspapers to maintain an increase of ioo per cent, in the price of their papers.” We shall strive to remove that doubt. To begin with, the increase is 50 per cent, to regular subscribers ; 100 to the casual purchaser. To continue: the city newspaper which can avoid a loss on the sale of every copy at three-halfpence may count itself particularly fortunate. Newsprint charges alone are at least 50 per cent, higher than in pre-war days, and successive awards since have fairly piled up the cost of production and distribution. For the raw wool required to make a suit costing ten guineas, the grower receives but Bs. Why? queries the Minister. Chiefly, we reply, because the grower neither converts the raw material into cloth nor tailors it. Those who perform these essential services for him—they, too, have had their cost of production doubled, even more than doubled, since the war. As for the farmer who sells his fruit on the spot at less than a penny a pound, and buys it back in a shop for “anything up to sixpence”—he can scarcely be designated an intelligent farmer. Anyhow, what applies to the wool and the suit applies with equal cogency to fruit: the producer cannot successfully be producer and marketer, too. Touching that aspect, Mr McLeod made an oblique reference to dairy control. He had been wiser to have held his peace on that subject. The net results to date of that marketing scheme speak eloquently for themselves. They are almost tragic.