GRAVE DIFFICULTIES

Taranaki Daily News, 7 October 1921, Page 2

GRAVE DIFFICULTIES

SHEEP FARMERS’ PROBLEMS. PLEA FOR REDUCED FREIGHTS. (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Oct. 4. The problems that face the sheep farmers were disci <1 briefly in the House of Representatives by Mr. A. D. McLeod (Wairarapa), who suggested that official statictics were to some extent misleading. The sheep farmers undoubtedly were experiencing hard times, said Mr. McLeotl, anc no believed that there was nothing to be gained by ignoring the plain facts of the situation. He would say, that unless the' Government could find a way out of the terrible difficulty created by the enormous rise in the cost of transportation, the Dominion would see wholesale bankruptcies among the primary producers. He had no hesitation in making this statement, because the truth ought to be faced. Mr. McLeod proceeded to quote figures to show that the situation,.. from the point of view of the farmers, was more serious than the official figures indicated. The estimates of value had been made on a wrong basis. The export value of wether mutton, for example, was. represented in the returns as 5%d per pound, but the farmers were selling 601 b. wethers, carrying 9, 10 and 111 b. of wool, for from 15s to IGs, and were glad to get even this price. Dr. Thacker (Christchurch East): How do you account for mutton costing 7d per pound in Wellington? Mr. Glenn (Rangitikei): You can buy thousands of carcases at 3d per pound if you like. Mr. McLeod added that the sheepfarming industry was in a perilous condition at the present time. The sole tiling that could save the industry from, very serious trouble was a reduction in * the enormously increased charges that had been imposed upon the meat between the freezing companies and the London market. New Zealand meat was not bringing unduly low prices on the London market. But the various charges had been increased to such an extent that the industry could not carry them. If the charges were not reduced there would be trouble, and he believed that the trouble would be felt even more severely by the people in the towns than by the people on the land.