Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9146, 15 May 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

“SHOULD farmers keep books?” was a question which came up during the -conference on technical education at Martou on Wednesday. The chairman (Mr F. Parnell) expressed the opinion that bookkeeping was not so necessary for farmers as for other business men because their profits depended so much on the fluctuations of market prices. There may be some deeper meaning in this statement than we can grasp, hut it seems on the surface to have little bearing 'On the question. To us it appears that the intelligent management of a farm like that of any other business demands that accounts should'be kept in proper form. The beeping of books does not directly increase profits, but serves to show what departments of the business are profitable and which produce> loss. Every farmer goes through a mental form of bookkeeping when he decides that he can afford to pay a certain -sum for his land either as purchase money or rent, and a similar ; prooess is gone through when he buys sheep or cattle^at^ prices svhich he regards “as Ii k elyt J profitT” tins "“rough process be made an exact one so that a farmer could tell to a penny„ what he made per head out of his sheep last year or the year before, or the profit per acre from various crops? It is only when data of this sort are available that farming will”be raised from its present state; of "muddled management to a really businesslike undertaking. We often hear complaints as to the valuation of land being too high and the opinion is expressed that (land v, should be valued rather on the basis of what can .be made out of it than on the selling price. This is a fair position, but how many farmers can tell what they make out of their laud? Their bank books will tell them the amount of thier overdrafts at the beginning and end of the year, but this is no criterion of the real results attained. If times have a'"new piano may have been bought or a holiday trip taken, yet these items should be charged to household expenses or personal account and considered as a portion of : the year’s | profit. proper are kept’{'no allowance for the farmer’s owu labour or depreciation of machinery and All these items mast be considered before a proper estimate of what the land produces can be made, and a true valuatiouTfroin the farmer’s point of view placed upon it. We regard bookkeeping for farmers as the first stage towards better cultivation and general management, because once the farmer begins to get an insight Into ibis true .financial position Jhe will ask himself by what steps it can be improved and will naturally turn to scientific methods of agriculture to assist him in producing .better results."'*” If the Farmers’ “Union would get some actual balance-sheets ifrora members and publish them it would do much to excite interest and discussion on the matter. A few lessons only would he necessary to put farmers on the right track in the keeping of accounts and'we feel sure that those who took the trouble to investigate their affairs in a busi-ness-like way would find the benefit of such a course.

THE repair and renewal of bridges has always been a soui’ce of much embarrassment to 'County Councils. Apart from the total losses sometimes caused by floods there are always unexpected liabilities cropping up owing to the discovery that the timber in some bridge is in a state of decay and that a new bridge will be required for the safety of traffic. When the question of replacement comes to be considered there is a tendency to prefer the smaller expenditure required for a timber structure to the larger sum needed for a permanent bridge in steel and concrete. There was some excuse for building bridges of timber when it could be obtained cheaply, but there is now no excuse for using a material which is not ouly costly, but comparatively short lived. Mr Mair, the Engineer, for Rauigtikei County, has suggested a businesslike scheme which deals with the question of bridges throughout the County on lines wind) are vastly superior to the hand-to-mouth policy too often in vogue. So far as we understand the proposal it is intended to borrow under the Loans to Local Bodies Act such sums as are required to replace bridges thus taking the burden off the annual revenue and spreading it over a period or thirty or forty years. This policy would be justified if, as is intended, all the bridges for which money was borrowed were

erected in steel and which should last for at least a century. The interest and sinking fund for such loans would be provided by means of a trifling rate which would be struck” at intervals to meet requirements. Most counties could adopt the plan at once as they do not need, to borrow the £6OOO annually permitted under th Q Act, but in the case of Raugirikei County, which is requiring so much money for development it would probably be necessary to obtain the extension of - borrowing powers which has been so long desired. Unless Government will permit this increase temporarily at least it is hard to see how the proposals can bo put into practical effect.

PITY the sorrows of our overworked Ministers of the Crown, who so frequently hint that they are. underpaid, and could earn more if they exercised their energies in some other occupation. Take note how they are at the present time flitting to and fro over the country in motor cars and in reserved railway carriages, receiving the homage of crowds of the expectant, and listening to the jubilations of the delighted. Look also how they expand at banquets, not in speech alone, and note their self-satisfied utterances as they claim that they are makers of New Zealand, and the creators of prosperity. Those who did not understand these things might he prone to imagine that a Minister’s life was what Hans Breitmaun called “von eternal shpree,” and that it left little to be desired. But the appetite for place, pay and power “grows by what it feeds on,” and ever and anon arises a wail for more pay, and a complaint of overwork. If Ministers were overworked, and were sensible men they would rest instead of continually perambulating the country.