DAIRY FARMING.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1920, Page 8

DAIRY FARMING.

THE TRUE POSITION. Speaking at a. meeting of the provincial executive of the~Farmers' Union on Wednesday, Mr. E. Maxwell referred to the necessity of establishing the true position of dairy fanning. Such a wor'; could not be done individually, but absolutely authoritative information must be collected, and it must come from a very representative body He had previously gone thoroughly into this matter some years ago, and gathered a great deal of confidential information which, of course, he could not divulge. He interviewed twenty farmers, valued their farms, stock, implements, improvements, the amount of capital involved in the farm, and in fact the whole position as thoroughly as possible, including all the expenses. Some of these men Mere quite capable of keeping accurate accounts, but not one out of the twenty knew within a cooee his true position. He was now going to ask the executive to set up a committee and go thoroughly into this matter, and would suggest the.:, two average farms be selected down Pa tea way, two on the Plains, two in the Opunake district, two in North Taranaki,-and two near Stratford. These should fairly represent the different qualities of land. They should then endeavor to get the Auckland and Wellington districts to do likewise. If this were accomplished it would be a great service to the whole community, and should establish definitely the cost of production of dairy produce. They knew the feeling amongst certain classes in the cities was that, the farmers were making huge" profits, and that the £600,000 butter contribution was a gift to the farmers. It was absolutely essential in the interests of industrial peace that the true facte should be ascertained and then clearly set before the public. He moved: That a committee ho set up to make investigations and obtain reliable information, with the object of being able to arrive at a correct estimate of the cost, of production from dairy farmres, and of the value of dairy farming as a means of livelihood, to the farming community and to the Dominion as a whole.—-Seconded by Mr. Buekeridge and carried.—Star.