South Canterbury Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1879.

South Canterbury Times, Volume XV, Issue 2072, 12 November 1879, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1879.

A lew days ago we called attention to the advantages likely to be conferred by the establishment of Farmer’s Unions in a colony like ours where agricultural pursuits are so intimately associated with national wealth and progress. We suggested that the Timaru district with its powerful agricultural backbone was specially adapted for the initiation of such an industrial organisation. The primary object of the institution we propose, is the protection and conservation of the farming interest, and this being the case, the farmers concerned should be the first to move in the matter. The farmers of Canterbury have lately experienced the ill effects of one or two bad seasons, and although the losses have on the whole been slight, many a struggling settler has found the pressure too severe on his slender resources and he has consequently gone to the wall. Had Farmers’ Unions been established on a sound mutual principle much of this ruin might have been averted, and families that are now practically beginning their colonial struggles afresh would still be in the enjoyment of comfortable prospects. It is desirable that warning should be taken from the experiences of the past, so that should a recurrence take place of difficulties arising from causes that baffle human forethought and ingenuity, the bad effects may be restricted as much as possible. One great aim on the part of Farmers’ Unions is to so improve the condition of agriculturists that they will not be living from hand to mouth, depending from season to season on providential rain and sunshine, the generosity of lien-holders and ihe patience of mortgagees. It is quite a customary thing with laymen, divines, and especially writers on agricultural topics, to lecture farmers on the necessity for proper tillage, rotation of crops, the use of chemicals and artificial manures, but it is rarely that the genuine cause of the farmer’s difficulties is grappled with, and an effort made to point out an avenue of escape from the seductive net which a certain portion of the money-lending and bill-broking community invariably weave around him. Before the farmer can hope to contend with certainty of j success against bad seasons, he must | be placed in a position commercially sound. He must be able to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market without having his profits winnowed by the bill-broker or discount merchant. So long as the farmer has to navigate his way to fortune through a sea of financial difficulties his vovage will be tedious and ofcen disastrous. Unlike ordinary members of the commercial arena, be is not constantly turning money over and realising on his investments. The farmer’s pay-day only arrives once a

year, and in the interval his obligations are invariably increasing. Thus it happens that he is so frequently compelled to sacrifice his crops before they'are harvested. He is in the position of a man in business living in advance of his income, without a soul to call his own, and practically in the hands of his creditors. Is it reasonaide to imagine that under such conditions he can thrive as he ought f We contend it is not. Before the farmer can be considered on fair terms of equality with the rest of the industrial and commercial community his crops must be converted into a fair equivalent for paper currency, and he must be rescued from the clutches of the mere speculator or usurer. How this can best best be accomplished, how the farmer can be placed in a position to demand a fair price for bis produce, is one of the problems which Farmers’ Unions are intended to solve. We have urged the necessity of establishing Farmers’ Unions in this part of New Zealand, and we intend to continue suggesting such an organisation till such time as our advocacy carries its fruits. Our efforts are stimulated not merely by a regard for the welfare of a single interest, but by the consideration that on agriculture depends the success of many other industries, the improvement of the labour market, and the comfort and prosperity of the people as a whole.