NOT FOR AMATEURS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 462, 2 July 1937, Page 2

NOT FOR AMATEURS

FARMERS NEED ABILITY Case For Guaranteed Price j I I ■ Claiming that farming was defin- | itely not a job for an amateur, Mr H. , E. Blyde told the Taranaki Cham- | her of Commerce test night that, | though business men did not ta»<e | the compensate! price eer'O'.isly, >ll j effect the farmei was the only ma” | in New Zealand who and not a com- i peilsated price. Mr Blyde quoted fig- f tires to show that ruiul land values.l represented only a fraction of ti‘ e i fatmers’ costs. Mr Blyde’s address was portion of I the campaign organised jointly by , the Farmers’ Union and the chumbvr | to effect better understanding between farmers and business men. | Modern farming was no job for j t-.mai.eurs, said Mr Blvd? Ij ca.led i lor brains, foresight, and t/aming. If j business men agreed that that was ■ so they should admit th) t farmers j should receive reasonable remuner- ( ation if they were efficient, and by ! comparison with other countries New ! Zealand farmers were efficient. Why, • (hen, had farmers for years had to be mendicants in the pociL f on of havr g i Io call for relief? Much had been made of high inn I j values, but the Dairy Commission’s report showed that interest repre- I sented only 2d* to 2Jd u lb. butterfat, j High land values in the tov'n* had ’ probably added more to farmers’ costs than high rural valuer, for the ; business man passed the increase on. ! Since 1913 the total capital of ! rural land had increased by 88 per ! cent., but the capital value of urban I land had) been trebled. Farmers felt tariffs had been re sponsible for maintaining and in creasing the price level. In some cases tariffs had been well worth while, but in the aggregate there had been an ever-ascending spiral of l costs which townspeople had been | able to pass on. The farmer, however, could not. pass those costs on. Every man who had not a fixed income or was not an exporter received a compensate'd price, said Mr Blyde. Workers could go to the Arbitration Court and business people could increase their prices Surely 1 the basic industry was entitled to a j compensated price as well!

The farmer wanted a compensated i price so that he could pay as go >d | wages as were paid to men in o her } occupations. Sure y it was in the | national interest tha.t good men I should be attracted to land work, i The farmer wanted it to give him | reasonable interest on the capital he had invested, just as business people received interest on their capital. He needed it to be in a position to meet increased costs due to the high price level.