The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1918. A PRESIDENTIAL ORATION.

Taihape Daily Times, 30 July 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1918. A PRESIDENTIAL ORATION.

(With which is Incorporated The Taihape Pofrt and Walroarlin News).

_ oAt the Dominion Conference of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, held in Wellington to-day, the Dominion President, Sir James Wilson, in his presidential address, referred at length to several questions of vital importance to the whole of the people of this country. It would have indeed been strange had he omitted to make some remarks with reference to the failure of those who at present possess the land to grow wheat in quantity, sufficient to make bread for the very small- population this country carries. Mr. Wilson is of opinion that farmers are asked to grow wheat at unremunerative prices, and we may rest assured that all duty will hav"e to be permanently removed unless a very large number of people are to see bread soar in price until it is beyond their reach. What is so difficult to synchronise by the ordinary observer .is that farmers will not grow wheat unless they can be sure of getting surprisingly high prices for it, and ye? they are eternally clamouring for cheaper labour. ! If the loaf of breac* is high in price farmers must not complain about paying higher wages, for men who are half-starved cannot work. Farmers cannot get labour ror wheat-growing because the wages they are prepared to pay are not sufficiently enticing, and it seems the intention is, if labour won't work for what farmers are prepared to give, they must want for breac. The Labour Department advises that work cannot be found for men who aro applying for it; then why should there be any talk about growing wheat owing to labour shortage; the fact is there is plenty of labour if those who require it are prepared to pay a fair living wage for it. We are in entire; agreement with most of what the President of the Farmers' Union said today, in his annual address, but we are constrained to the view that he is just a little astray in his wheat-growing arguments from one cause or another; his wheat talk has not quite the sincere ring about it we think it should* have. His remarks on oat-growing indicate the lines of truth; he pointed out that in 1912 there were over four hundred thousands of acres in oats, producing nineteen millions of bushels, while now we have only two hundred thousands of acres, returning less than four millions of bushels. Sir .Tames is inclined to lay this extraordinary state of affairs to labour shortage, while it is plain that cere!? growing is not persisted in because farmers can make more money out of woo? and meat with less outlay for labour. He hopes farmers won't give up horsebreeding as that would result in a se. ricus. shortage of traction, but he knows very well that horses, as we" as wheat and oats must give way to bigger profits from wool and meat. If Mr. Wilson finds it advisable to entourage oat-growing so that horsebreeding may not become a lost industry, it is worth while to consider the advisability of urging the growth of wheat so that human beings may be fed. No, Sir James, wheat and oaTs are not grown because they do not give such good and easy returns as wool and meat, and it would look better to say so straight out. Of course, such conditions will right thmeselves in time, but not until the people elect a Government that will attach more importance to the human life than they do to pounds, shillings and pence. In his remarks or? wool Be points out the year's clip is valued at twelve millions, and this is accompanied by a lament that owing to an enormous quantity of last, or previous year's wool still in store, there is a possibility of a further piling up. 'As he remarks, there is no deterioration of wool from storage, at the same time, he might have given some indications of what will happen if the Home Gov. ernment takes the men at their word, who think they can do better for themselves, and decides not to further

commandeer any wool. What a howi ,

there would be; some wool-growers are so eager for profits and still more profits that they forget it is to the British Government and the British Navy that they have the power to do such as they please with their wool. Sir James points out that were it not for Britain, farmers might have had to deal with Germany; he says New Zealand stores are packed with wool, meat, butter and cheese, and little consideration would have been forthcoming from Germany. Farmers and the country would be back to the early days when there was scarcely any money to circulate, and here he frankly admits that in such a case the people of New Zealand would not starve as farmers could grow enough food for the people as well as enougn wool to clothe them. It is strange that with Britain taking wool and meat at highly remunerative prices, It is impossible for them to grow enougn food for the people, and the Government has to come to the rescue and import wheat so that flourmills should not stand idle; why the National Government is so particularly solicitous for the welfare of flourmillers we will not now discuss. Mr. Wilson had something to say about the prosperity of the people, and he quoted figures which were irrelevant because they had no bearing upon that huge mass of the people who it cannot be claimed are prosperous. There is no question about the prosperity of "the" people; the people who are permitted in this time of war to load their merchandise with from one hundred to five hundred per cent, but here we are drifting into the cost of living question, which with boards and governments who have enjoyed high salaries, to tinker with it, ought to be transferred to limbo. We do not think the President was altogether feeling too comfortable in his reference to taxation that he knows is certain to come. It seems to us an eternal disgrace to capitalists that the compulsory clauses of the last Loan Bill had to be put into force to extract about a million to make up the amount required. Mr. Wilson seems to" be very sorry for these capitalists; he says the next loan- will be. on the market in the course of a few-months, when "further inroads into the- wealth of those mucnroviled .but necessary persons, the capitalists, will again be made." We would ask Mr. Wilson who he thinks should find the money for War Loans, or, if the poor, much-reviled, yet necessary capitalists, are not to find ir, he might give some ■ idea of where it is to come from. We will even admit the claim that land is rurnishing one way or another, seven millions or taxation, but if land and income Go not furnish taxation will Mr. Wilson state where it should come from. There is only one other source, and that is to take it from the men who have fought, from the widows of the brave fellows who gave their lives that people here might go on piling up profits;, from the orphans, of whicn there will be., a, . plentiful crop when the world-wide strife is over. By increasing indirect taxation these are the unfortunate beings who , woula have to pay. No doubt strenuous efforts will be made to saddle the masses, with outrageous indirect taxation, but it is hard.to say what would happen if the cost of the necessaries of life were further materially increased in price. If the much-reviled, yet necessary persons will not invest their accumulations of riches in War Loans they will, of course, be compelled, for there is nowhere else the money can bo obtained from. Sir James Wilson agrees that the only way this country can meet its financial obligations is by increased production; why he die

not suggest a commencement to produce more is beyond understanding-. Government and producers are proclaiming that our liabilities can only be met by increased production ana yet they all wink at a distinctly perilous decrease of that from which our riches come. The speech delivered was a very lengthy one, and, on the whole, an excellent one; because w« have selected a few excerpts that seemed to fall short in some respects to comment upon, we do not wish to give an impression that production and the whole country is not all the better for having, such men as Sir James Wilson giving much thought and attention to them.