A MUCH BRIGHTER OUTLOOK.

Shannon News, 30 August 1927, Page 4

A MUCH BRIGHTER OUTLOOK.

THE MARKETS REVIEWED. The prospects of a revival of prosperity in the season of production now beginning are discussed by the Manawatu Daily Times in the following article wjhich sets out cogently the outstanding features of the position. August and September as a rule provide reliable indications as to the prospects of our primary exports for the coming season, and the indications afforded this year are unmistakeablv brighter than they have been for a considerable time past. The reversion to the free marketing of our dairy produce with the former keen competition and satisfactory f.o.b. sales, coupled with the promising prices at crutching sales, and the excellent condition in which live stock came through the winter months, should go a long way towards putting heart into the farming community, and restoring in a full measure that .confidence in our primary industries which has been only too sadly lacking of late years. As to the coming dairying season the outlook is particularly bright and suggests a substantial increase in revenue over the previous year. The fact must not be overlooked, of course, that last season produced a record output due to a very great extent to the favourable climatic conditions. So far the present spring holds out even greater promise, and substantial increases in butter and dlieese are reported from individual factories and cool stores. This applies particularly to this district where a very cold and wet spring was experienced last year. Although the climatic conditions will always be an important, if not a determining factor, in dairy production, the time has nevertheless arrived when such a factor should be brought to* an irreducible minimum. The early spring and mid-summer are two critical periods for the average dairy-farmer, when a season may be made or marred, and though the remedies are well-known, they are not yet being availed of as they should be. From a commercial viewpoint the coming season is equally satisfactory. A small amount of butter only has been sold forward, but the indications are that prices ruling up to the end of the year, at any rate, will enable factories to pay suppliers between Is 6d and Is per lb. butterfat. On the other hand, a large number of cheese factories have sold their output up to the end of November and December at prices that will return Is 7d to Is per lb. butterfat. Those values represent an increase of 3d to 4d per lb. butterfat over last season, and calculated on the annual output will furnish an increased revenue of from two to three million sterling to the industry. Such a rapid recovery w-as little dreamt of six months ago and may be taken as an incontestable proof of the fundamental soundness and the rvonderful recuperative powers of the New Zealand dairy industry.

The August-September crutching sales are generally regarded as the touchstone of the approaching wool season. An increase of three farthings to one penny per lb. over June prices will, no doubt, have come as an agreeable surprise to sheep-farmers, not so much on account of the actual increase in the value of crutchings as of the excellent promise for the future. The complete clearing of stocks, the keen and representative competition, the free bidding and prices of 12d and over for crossbred crutchings as experienced at the Wellington sale on Tuesday certainly augur -well for the coming wool season.

Even the most easual farmer recognises to-day that his salvation lies in an increased volume of production. Balance-sheets as issued by dairy companies at this time of the year conclusively prove that there has been no appreciable reduction in the cost of manufacture. The same applies to the individual farmers’ cost of production, both in the dairy and sheep industries. On the other hand, such forward steps as herd-testing, now subsidised by the Government; top-dressing, now brought within the reach of every farmer on account of the substantial reduction in fertiliser prices; and improved farming methods generally taught during the last few years by the hard task master, “necessity”—all these factors should help to compensate the primary producers by an increased volume for the serious decline in value.

This does not say, of course, that many necessitous cases do not still remain where the judicious assistance of a sympathetic Government can be of real value to the farming community. Many of these may be beyond recall, but* there exists a large numbir of what may be termed “borderland cases’’ whom timely asistanee and a good season or two will help over the stile and so save from utter ruin. If this is done, and if every endeavour is made to improve our per capita production, at the same time exercising the strictest economy in private and public expenditure and so- bringing about a reduction in taxation, the Dominion as a whole will be restored to its former prosperity as rapidly as the recovery of our primary industries.