CORRESPONDENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 February 1922, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE PLIGHT OF THE FARMER.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —No. doubt, with many others, you are anxiously watching the fate of many of the farmers, especially’ those who have this season gone into dairying. It simply means that unless some form of help comes to them, they will certainly lose their own and their wife’s and family’s hard earnings. Now, Sir, no doubt a great deal of the present trouble has been caused by the speculation in land. In many cases the “speculator” hardly put a foot on the property. Don’t you think. Sir, that if some arrangement was come to between the mortgagees and mortgagors, much of the present trouble could be overcome? For instance, why could not mortgages held by purely speculators be reduced in interest say by one per cent, (making all interest certainly not more than five per cent) ? They could certainly go further by giving the farmer a clean receipt for his twelve months’ interest. Such action would show the farmer that his mortgagees were in real sympathy in his present misfortunes. No doubt many of the mortgagees are not trying to collect their interest at present, but that hardly meets the case, because these are all being stacked up in front of the farmer, and it simply means that with one year’s interest behind him and another year’s expenses in front he will not be in any better position to start another season that he is at present. The only remedy I can see is to give him a clean sheet with which to start the next season, and if that does not put some heart into him, well, he is not a true farmer. No doubt mucn more could be written on the subject, but I should certainly like to see others more able to deal with the matter express their views.—l am, etc., “FARMER.” Bird Road, Stratford, Feb. 5.