OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 187, 17 November 1910, Page 3

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDEE REVIEW By R. J. LAMES. [All Rights Reserved.] TARANAKI: THE PROVINCE PROLIFIC. MOKE ABOUT LAND YALUKS. We have already s;en that within seven years the land over a large area in South' Taranaki has doubled itself in price. It would appear that for the most part the increments have been due to the solid returns which vendors have been able to prove as the product of tlieii lands. But at the same time there has been an element of speculation which has constantly tended to push values up to the limit of production. Singularh enough, the Cheap Money of the Government has helped to make Dear Land. For men have argued in this way: "li ten years ago I bought land at £23 pn acre, and paid 10 per cent, interest for the money, am I not better off now in paying Hs\) per acre when I can get [money at 4Vs per cent. —and more particularly since butter-fat is now worth so much more?" That reasoning may or may not be all right for the man to whom those interest conditions have been applied, but manv of the men who wanted the money most could not get it from the Oavernment. whilst others have paid 7, 8. I) and 10 per cent, for money —sometimes to the man who was fortunately able to borrow from the Government at AV-, per cent. (Still the argument has counted, and there is no doubt at all that the cheapening of money generally has helped materially in pushing the price of land upwards. If, after discussing the matter with a large number of farmers, one were asked to state in express form the causes which have contributed to the remarkable rise, one might say:: ' (1) Increase in price of butter-fat; due to rise in London markets and improved factory methods. (2) Cheaper monev and development of systems of finance which enabled men of small means to take up farms. (3) The fact that most of the members of many families had become wageearners. (4) The greater care in ridding the herd of scrubber cow*. (5) The use of machinery. (6) The speculative element. The speculative element has been placed last because, as a general rule, although there was hope and expectation in the hearts of the buyers, they knew not what good things they were getting any more than the sellers were aware of the snug little competencies they were allowing with such satisfaction to slip from their fingers. OPPORTUNITIES THAT WERE CAUGHT AND MTSSED.

So much depends on good judgment—and Good Luck! Opportunity in Taranaki has been a very variable quantity. Xo one, really, has been able to identify it 'with certainty. Less than six years ago some of the shrewdest men in the district sold out at £3O per acre. To-day, at public auction, that land would sell easily at £SO. In these cases the men of 'wide experience and sound judgment gave away properties which have gone up in value to the extent of £2O an acre. The incoming men, not so experienced, have not onlv made a fat living off the land, but they now enjoy as well a speculative profit of £2OOO updn ea-ch 100 acres. Sixteen years ago an ineffectual attempt was made to sell a property at Kaupokonui at £7 7s per acre. Being unsuccessful in obtaining what was then regarded as a price altogether too high, the vendors ''hung on." To-day that land is worth from £45 to £3O per acre, its.value having doubled itself within the past ten years. Or, to look at it in another way, there was a fiOO per cent, rise in 10 years! A 20acre farm not far from Hswvera was sold within the past few months at £75 per acre; within ten weeks it found a new owner at £B2 per acre. And the last buyer bought not for speculative purposes but to make a living off the land. On this property the improvements were worth, possibly, £SOO, but allowing that ] would still leave the value of the Und standing at £57 per acre. Tnstances like thfse might be quoted almost without end. Small fortunes have been sold unconsciously, and bought without having been recognised. We should have got on the land young man —a few years ago.

FINANCE. Good finance lias played a very important part in the development of the dairy industry, and nutie will seriously deny that the genius of the late Mr. T.L. Joll, whilst benefiting himself financially, conferred g.real good on the whole district. Mr. Joll established his proprietary concern opportunely. By an ingenious system of finance he was able to bind a number of suppliers to his factory, and by furnishing them with capital at a cheaper rate than they could get it elsewhere —and managing the. factory so well that the returns compared favorably 'with surrounding co-operative concerns — ) the suppliers were glad to be so bound. With Mi'- Joll's advent, the days of payI ing 10 per cent, and 12% per cent, ifl\'ter?st were soon numbered. It was not long before the benefits of supplying .Toll's became so manifest that Kaupokomii—a big, adjoining co-operative factory —found it necessary to devise some j scheme for promptly helping the small man. Thus the competition between the factories not only created a scheme of financial help but developed a plan of operations which companies -in other

I parts of -the Dominion may find useful. ; Six of the bluest shareholders in the Kaupokonui formed thtmselves into a company, paid in, say, £.500 each, and guaranteed a bank overdraft for whatever financial operations might be required. The interest charge was fixed at 7 per cent, (with S per cent as the maximum where the risk was heavier), and repayments were to he matle by 41) per cent, of the monthly milk cheques. Of course this financial association did not 1 go into the business to lose, but allowing 1 that they paid the bank 5 per cent, the I margin of 2 per cent, must be regarded as very reasonable when the expenses of | management and risks are taken into account. Resides, the 7 per cent, at which borrowers could get the money represented the lowest price at which they could secure it anywhere. The enterprise of this little association was and is greatly appreciated by the men who cannot get a start without financial assistance, and the capital which has been invested to date totals about "CiM.OOO. Af-

Itcr Mr. Joll's unfortunate death as the | result of accident, the factory was taken over by the suppliers, who formed themselves into a co-operative company. So that the financial fight between the proprietary and the "co-op." is at an end. incidentally, it mav be said that where the number of suppliers is large it is the almost inevitable destiny of proprietary concerns to become co-operative. RENTED FARMS. As in life there must surely be seven stages in dairy farming. First the learner, drawing the silver stream 'with tortured fingers; then the finished milker whose practised muscles relieve, say, io v cows; of. .seir.-,precious Jmrden without ■tM 4t^iiw.>M^tA;^«ct;H;h^

share-milker; next the man with tlte rented farm. His-next important stage is to become the owner of a farm carrying a mortgage burden which looks unsuppurtable; but finally we find the free man with one farm, two farms, time farms—bnaking others into the use of those laborious rungs by which alone the poor man mav climb the ladder of Si!<w.-s. One may meet many nowadays who are enjoying the sweet reward of >nch toil. Of course the opportunities are (very year lessening to the man wno has nnlv Ins willing -hands for capital. ! but Opportunity may still be recognised by lieaiis that are wise—ami lucky. In the heart of the industry in South Tarauaki t'2 per acre for 100-acre farms is about an average rental, hi smaller areas, having respect to roading, proximity to factory and school, and such oilier considerations, £2 ss, £2 10s and t'2 12s (id are common enough prices, while as much as £3 is paid. A word about opportunity. Three years ago a man of very, small means was financed into a farm. He took over a lease of ll>l) aens at Ills per acre,- and contracted to pay £IOOO goodwill, which made the rental about £2 per acre. His cows (between fifty and sixty now running) were bought under bill of sale. When the deal became known, heads vfere gravely sliakui. But dairy conditions have turned out so well that the farmer in question expec'ts that this season his cows will return h;m a clean sheet, and that he will be able to settle snugly to work on his 10s an acre farm till the end of i the lease.