LINKS IN PRODUCTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 980, 24 May 1930, Page 7

LINKS IN PRODUCTION

TOWN AND COUNTRY CO-OPERATION AND UNITY CALLED FOR This is the time when the farmers’ organisations are confer ring in various centres of the Dominion, and discussing matters affecting the welfare of our agri cultural and pastoral producers. It is gratifying to note a marked waning in the antipathy which once was so marked between our town and country producers. With a deeper knowledge of the value of our manufacturing industries old-time prejudices are disappear ing rapidly. Our manufacturers have alwa> realised the essential value of the pro • ducers on the land to the prosperity and progress of the Dominion: tha we must have foodstuffs and rav materials before our craftsmen and machinists can apply their skill to manufacturing processes and so greatly enhance the value of the crude materials produced by our farmer-. The more our farmers produce and tho higher the value of their output the greater the amount added annually tu our store of wealth. The more we can apply our city labour and labour f saving processes to the production of i that wealth, adding immensely to the : value of the raw materials by converting them into finished goods, the more our towu workers will also contribute to our national income and national prosperity. Every season the farmer is leaning more and more on the skilled worker to produce farming machinery, artificial fertilisers, and other manufactured accessories which make farm production more profitable by increasing the yield from the same amount of labour, enabling the farmer to compete in the open markets of the world with the cheapest of human labour in countries with the lowest standard of living. To foster our agricultural industries the country spends an enormous amount every year In direct votes of : public money and substantial concession from State departments, and tht | burden of taxation is much lighter on the country producer. State advanres and rural credits provide him with cheap money, and experts are at his beck and call to render him every assistance. That has been a wise i policy to which our town producers i have never taken exception, as they j have realised the vital importance of I better and more economic farming to ! the whole community. MUTUAL INTERESTS

Our manufacturing industries have been built up with but little aid or encouragement from the State, and often in the face of strong prejudice from our own people. Yet if New Zealand is to grow up from a scattered rural community into a self-sup-porting and self-reliant nation, our aim must be to make as much use as we can of the materials produced by onr farmers, and get the greatest possible value wo can out of those products by employing our workers and our industrial plants to fashion them into finished articles for our owu nse. instead of importing our manufactured goods from the uttermost ends of the enrth. The beat customers our farmers can possibly have are our own people, consuming the foodstuffs produced on our farms, preserving any surplus for future use or for export. We should keep these same workers busy making our farmers’ wool, skins, hides, etc., into manufactured goods to supply the teeal market. The bigger the local demand for the farmer's products the greater the security of his market, and the higher his returns with the saving of heavy charges for selling abroad. Already nearly 25 per cent, of our butter Is consumed In the local market, and 75 per cent, of the beef slaughtered is sold in New Zealand Only 23 per cent, of our bacon and • ham is exported, and the local consumption of mutton is about equal to the amount exported. We consume practically the whole of the grain grown in the Dominion, and the whole of our farmers’ production of vegetables. For every case of apples we ship overseas a case is eaten locally, and almost the total output of other fruits goes into local consumption. THE CONNECTING LINK

So the local Riarket, so far as on/ farmers are concerned, is not as negligible as some would have them believe. and the greater that market expands by the building up of productive industries in the towns the lees dependent our farmers will be on the vagaries of markets overseas, and the control exercised by overseas trusts and speculators in our farmers exported products. What is needed now is a bold policy of building up new industries and expanding existing ones for still greater use of our farmers' raw materials. Even to satisfy our local demand our woollen mills, boot factories, and tanneries would be eager and willing buyers of enormously increa6ed quantities of our farmers’ products. If only their industries were so safeguarded as to assure them tbe one market they have an undeniable right to—that of supplying our own people with their necessities by our own labour from our home grown materials. THE INCREASED PRICE BOGEY What seems to have prejudiced our farming community against any tariff to stimulate greater home pro- ; duction of manufactures is the bogey ! of increased prices, and the fear that. I by shutting out imported goods, the ! local manufacturer would at once , raise prices against the local consumer I and exploit him for higher profits | To those who are so deluded it may be j pointed out that our manufacturers , have given their pledge to the Government that if the reasonable shelter ! they ask for is granted by a Development of Industries Board, after the 1 most searching investigation, they will not take advantage of that production to raise prices against the public. Our own workers are not only adding to the national wealth of the Dominion by making the farmers’ materials into valuable and necessary articles, but they are better customers ‘ of our farmers than those making the articles imported from the other side of the world. Our own workers and 1 their families are 100 per cent, users j of our farmers’ produce. What is wrong with our farmers being 100 per cent, users of our New Zealand workers’ products? Keep our workers employed by <)•- | manding New Zealand-made good*. • *