The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22. THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 62, 22 June 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22. THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY.

One of the most important points in the address delivered by the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand last week was that referring to the dairy industry and the price of land. He showed what was possible under modern conditions of scientific farming and with the use of the latest dairy machinery, instancing the case of a Manaia farmer, who made a clear iproflt of £.6 15s per acre off 32 acres, or £9 per cow, this result being achieved after an allowance of two-fifths for labor had been made. There are 536,316 milch cows in the Dominion, and if the average of £9 per cow were obtained, our dairy produce would be worth £4,080,000. This, of course, is not the case, for, as Mr. Beauchamp pointed out, the total value for the year ended 31st March, 1910, was £2,820,568, and, with the produce coni sumed locally (approximately valued at ! £1,257,927), making a total of £4,078,j 495. If from this an average of twoj fifths ibe deducted for labor, etc., the net result is, approximately, £2,448,000, or about £4 10s iper cow, or just about one-half of the results obtained in the Manaia case mentioned. The chairman referred to the wide difference between these extremes, and said it was quite obvious that there is a great scope for the scientific expansion of the industry, and added: "It is a question whether the time has not arrived for the Government to take an active part in a ■wholesale way in the matter of herdtesting." Mr. Beauchamp later remarked: "The question of the immediate future is whether more money is to go into the value of the land or more in the improvement of the milking herds. In my opinion, the price of dairy land is on the average quite high enough at present, and to justify some greater attention must be devoted to the weding and breeding of high-grade stock. .

What we want in New Zealand to-day more than cheap money is cheap land." We have quoted from Mr. Beauchamp's speech rather fully, for the reason that his remarks are specially applicable to and have a most important bearing on Taranaki, dependent, as it is, almost for its very • existence, on the dairying industry. For some time now, the rapid increase in prices—we hardly like.to use the word values—of land in the jprovince has given not a little concern to those with the interests of the district at heart and been a source of wonder as to when and where the increase would stop. The State has given us cheap money; price* of our produce have up wonderfully; the seasons havp ' ■■— f avorable in a special degree; thr ilion of the mechanical milker has mitigated, if not almost done away with, tie labor difficult}'—these have been factors in bringing about the pre-, sent prices of land. But not the least important factor has been the readiness of a needy class to take up land, no matter at how high a price, and paying as a deposit on the same little or nothing. Another factor has been the prevalence of the pernicious system of exchange. Values, or prices have thus ■been created that only the most favorable conditions can maintain or justify. A decline in prices of our produce at i Home of, say, 33 per cent.—a not unlikely contingency, as shown by Mr. Beauchamp—would cause a great disaster in Taranaki. There is no margin to come and go upon. Therein lies the danger, and it is a very real danger to Taranaki. It cannot be denied that the application of better methods would considerably reduce the -danger,, and, in respect of the best lands, justify, to some extent, the present big prices. Unfortunately, however, the class that pays the high prices has, in the majority of cases, neither the money | nor the inclination to go in for more in- j tense farming. Most of his cash goes to pay the deposit, and the remainder to the land agent, whilst to the auctioneer usually falls the lot of providing and financing him with cows. He has no money to spend in laying down paddocks afresh or top-dressing, for getting the best -strains of milch animals or milking machines, to keep ahead of things he and his family have to "slog in," morning, noon and night. It is, therefore, too much to expect a great improvement in dairy methods from this type of struggling settler. As for State compulsion referred to by Mr. Beauchamp, it is hardly likely that the Government, after the way in which it was trounced over the dairy regulations and the gross and wilful misrepresentations indulged in by men, in this province particularly, who ought to have known better, will rush into the breach and force the farmer against his will to test bis herd regularly and throw out and brand rejects. Undoubtedly compulsion would •prove of material benefit, both to the farmers and the province, but it is a matter that will have to be left to the farmers themselves. The farmer who is '"out of the wood" is already showing a disposition to improve his method?. He sees the advantage 01 manuring, of putting back into the land that which he has extracted, of providing winter feed, of improving the strain •of his herd and of utilising the various mechanical contrivances that are now on • the market. This class of man is push-, ing the industry ahead, and, viewed from the standpoint of the interests of the community, it is a great pity that more do not continue on their farms instead i of selling out to the struggling and fre-j quenfcly overloaded men. Mr. Beauchamp talks of our needing cheap land 1

more than cheap money. Which is true enough, though it may be pointed out that cheap land usually means dearer money, and dear money helps the banker. What we want is more land. The more land there is available, the smaller the demand, and the more reasonable the price. And so we get back to the old point, the opening up of our unoccupied •'wl unused .lands, native and pakeha. Everything should be subordinated to this desideratum. The Government's | duty is .plain, and it is gratifying to find that it is more alive to that duty now i that it has been since the days of Sir ] John Mackenzie. As for the exchange system, that would be greatly mitigated if not remedied were the transactions to bear full stamp duty.