The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1920. “OF GRAVE SIGNIFICANCE.”

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3424, 2 March 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1920. “OF GRAVE SIGNIFICANCE. ”

With which its incorpL',..‘:~' “The Taihape Post. 35'} Waimmino Newt.”

Farmers, and .all those who are at all ‘careful and in earnest about keeping l up production an.d land values, should 3note well the message that the Govi ernment statistician, is impressing upon l them. He states that production continues to decrease; there is a decrease of getting well on for a million sheep, and all our principal exports show a decline. Not -only is there a very serious falling off in‘stock, but all crops are returning less per acre. He states that the figures of «production continue to point steadily downwards, and that t.lley are of grave significance not only for the farmer but for the whole country. Farmers should make it their chief business to know why production is actually decreasing in stock, grain, and potatoes, because with the opening up of land, , which will continue despite the efforts of a taihoa Government, more stock will be required, while it must be realised that prices of stock are limited to those of the world’s markets. We mean that no person will buy stock at a figure higher than he can quit it for, and it is: the world ’s market that governs the value of stock the world over, it puts values up and keeps them down. Again, farmers have to realise that with less stock in the country than land will comfortably carry, land values will slide down. The travesty about “production and more production” is in fact developing into a tragedy; this fact is concealed, or masked by abnormal prices, but it is present, neventheless. The farming community has made vast strides in the study of the more abstract questions affecting their industry, but in their own best interests they are yet leaving themselves too much in the care of the meat and wool, ‘and other produce dealers, to say nothing of the politicians. Ifa shopkeeper can-not keep his stock on a level with demand he is paying rent and running his concern for 9. much lessened business; and that is precisely the position of a farmer who, through a depletion. of stock, has to let his pastures run to seed because stock is unobtainnble. There has been a downward tendency of the number of sheep for some time past; "there have\, the. Statistician points out, been seasonal fluctuatirms, but danger lurks in paying much at.tention to them, for the fact reinains that the country is becoming poorer and poorer by the falling off in production of all kinds, and, as it has been stated, “the figures have a grave significance for the country.” With their stupid, dishonest yelling from housetops. about “production and still more production,” farmers and people are being Tiypnotiscd; into believing that production is increasing, and that everything is moving satisfactorily, and to the enrichment of the country. For the present, higher prices are concealing the fact, -disguising the ’t.l'u‘ih,! that production is becoming less per} acre as the population increases, andi waking time is coming along rapidly, when We shall realise what madmen We have been to allow ourselves to be‘ lulled into a. false security by politicians, whose interests do not always 3000111 with what is ‘nest for the country it SPPHIS that man cannot repress 90'”. Dairy farmers lllmii seriously discussed the suggestion that dairy cattle will fetch as much as fifty P 0117155 per head in the future, and are not ‘dairy farmers and graziers

working for that time by the ruthless destruction. of calves. It‘ dairy cattle and beeves are to be kept from decreasing in numbers, calves must, be saved. This calf—murder question is rather bewildering, for very recently it was reported that yearliings were fetching prices that two-year beasts were bringing, while it is heard on all: sides that it does not pay to rear calves. There is undoubtedly an extravagance somewhere about this calfrearing business, as the value gets higher and higher year by year. ~ But the killing off of calves continues un~ abated, and, of course, there can be but one result, a scarcity of cattle. It seems little is to be gained by putting more men on the land if the numbers of the country ’s sheep are to go on -docreasing, and if cattle are to ‘be prevented froni multiplying by the slaughter of calves. The fact is that Government is not serious about their insane cry of “production and still more production.” This should need no repetition, for does not the Statistician convict. the Government Of falsity, in broadcasting the fact that production has been decreasing for the past ten years, and that -the prospect is for still further decrease in the future. This Dominion is not heading for progress and more production. Then it must be heading in the opposite directioii, and sensible, thoughtful, far—sccing people realise the gravity of the situation. The real state -of production is masked by present high prices, but if this country is to be rescued from the reaction. to follow, which is as certain to eventuate as that prices are new high, there must be mor-e production, and farmers must give more far~'seeing consideration to their interests than the mere matter of what price they can get today. The reaction of to-niorrow is of vastly more importance to this country than anything that obtains to—day. If the future is to be What we desire it should be, the continuous falling oil’ in production must. cease; we must become better stewards in the vineyard entrusted to us; we must retrieve that production lost in the ‘past ten years, and build up an ‘increase that will render farmers and people immune from any calamity of falling markets. in the future. To-day less is produced, and more money is rcceivetd for it, tiemorrow is coming when less money will be forthcoming, and if more cannot be produced owing to our folly now, wliat is going to happen‘?