The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1919. A WARNING TO DAIRY FARMERS.

Taihape Daily Times, 3 September 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1919. A WARNING TO DAIRY FARMERS.

With which is incorporatec‘ “The Taihape Post and Waimarino . _NeWs-”

Remarks made bymthe Chairman of the Annual Meeting of the New Zealand Dairy Association held last week, touching upon the future ot the dairy industry, are particularly interesting and most apropos at the present time. He warned farmers against paying high prices for land; he pointed out that the dairy-'farlnel's’ inarket was in Europe, and that. that part of the world was so ‘unsettled tnow that it wu.s almost impossible to forecast prices. Good returnsewould. be obtained for the next few years, and il.fllol' that all was uncertainty; nobody could tell \'\'l]'.li‘. would happen. Basing other T§;l:ll'c}l'.'{S upon the foregoing‘, he- said £};rl§il«;r's would be well .advised to reduce‘ lteavy mortgages, as money was almost certain to be dearer in the near futurc.- He urged farmers to ‘cooperate and not only consolidate their interests in New Zealand, but also get and keep control of the selling end of their business. This advice is either wholly good or wholly bad, it is of such a definite cllanacter that it admits of nothing of {L half-way nature. 'l?his journal has from time to time advocated what the ch'airman of the largest Dairy Assoeia. tion in New Zealand is now urging, not only upon shareholders in that Association, but upon dail'y-farmers from the North Cape to the 'Blufl?. Because we believe that the T.aihape district is yet to become :1. dairying centre of some importance; that the dairying industry will sooner or later ‘make rapid headway in various localities llel'efl-bollt, “'0 strongly commend Mr Goodfellow’s renrarks, quoted above, to all who contemplate entering the milk-producing business. Not the least important statement made is that respecting the future, and this is stressed bee.a.use so mm)" people imagine that what is toG33’ is §oillg to be to-xnorrow. There is no. certainty about the nature, of the d3ll'.Yi-"5; business beyond the ensuing few >’93l‘S; it is obvious that grave doubts existed in the speaker's mind. because he also expressed -the opinion that 'mO"O.V Would be ‘dearer in the near fllturey and, with entire elimination of

trust methods, money and coxnrnodities 0311"“ "IPPTOOiaIe at the same time. Farmers are urged to make their land their own as far as possime now, be. cause with the appreciation of money there In-ay be a reverse movement in the value of the security they have to offer. Mr Goiodfellow considered it his duty to warn farmers to use caution in purchasing ‘land at extreme prices, as 110 one Could U3ll What the market in EUTOPG Would be fouryears hence. He is fully alive to the need of gaining and keeping control of what dairymen have to sell at the marketing- end. Experience in other -branches of primary production furnishes an indication that trusts may turn their attention to dairy products in the near future, if they are l 110‘? already doin-g So at this moment, and he strongly .advises close co-opera-l tion with a View to consolidating their int'ol‘CSts in New Zealand, and in keeping a strong grip on the selling end of their business. No person can predicthow soon disorganised Europe will be able to again enter into competition with our butter and cheese; no one can i estimate what effect. the immence change in ownership of territory in Africa will have on our primay industries; it is impossible to forecast what the Japanese occupations in Mongolia, Manchlll’ia, and other parts of the Continent of Asia, will accomplish in connection with competition in the butter and cheese markets of the world_ From current literature in all European countries that have already commenced upon reorganisation, it is seen that in-i creased importance is being“ given to all avenues of food -pi‘-'6'duction, and it is impossible to estimate how soon, and to what extent, that production will tend to’ limit the demand for what New‘ Zealand is producing, and how it will affect markets from the price point of view. No doubt the chairman of the National Dairy Association had fully taken all these f=a.cto¥'s' into consideration in the formation of the opinions he expressed to that great meeting of dairymen. He would also have in mind the fact. that the Argentina had now‘ become thew. greatest meat exporting country in the World, and‘ he saw plain‘ly the probabilities that it was only a matter of -time when that great grazing country would become a power tol i be considered as a competitor in butter i and cheese-making. It is not thinkable ‘that so great a ‘dépasturing country will not turn its attention to such a' source of profit as the dairying indus-I try must cvcrbe so long as land is pur- l chasable at prices that are in accord-L lance with cominon sense. What the iArgentina has become in respect of 'm=eat-production it may yet achieve in the export of butter and cheese, and so ‘long as demand has limits so long will I the supply have its effect on prices obitainable. Dairy-f‘a'rlners in New Zea‘land are urged ‘by the Chairman -of the National Dairy Association to realise inow that in the present lies their opIportunity to base their operations on sure foundations; to make provision for the safety of tlleir_l-and against the days when money has appreciated, and 'all commodities, including land, have ideprcciatcd. He sees the small cloud iof competition. in the distance, no big\i ger than a man’s hand at present, but which may yet spread -over all Europe, lover a great part of Asia and Africa, land, with equal probability, over the ’greater part of South America. The gfluture. outlook does not induce the most pleasant of reflections, but it is l a warning that will assuredly proveof lincalculaiale value to those who heed iit, whether they are dairy-farmers ‘already, or are yet only prospective } dairy-.farnlcl's.