GRICULTURAL BANKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1922, Page 6

GRICULTURAL BANKS.

A COUNTRY MEMBER’S PLEA. “DAIRY INDUSTRY CAN BE DOUBLED.” A strong plea for the agricultural bank was made by a country member, Mr. 0. J. Hawken (Egmont) in the House of Representatives on Thursday night. Great stress had been made, he said, in past years of the necessity for the subdivision of large estates. The present was a great opportunity for subdivision. The be,ef industry, from which New Zealand had received about three millions sterling during the war, had become very unpopular with cattleraisers, who were not only losing the value of their industry, but were forced in some instances, to find extra money to keep them going. From all evident signs, the export of beef from New Zealand would cease within two years. Perhaps it would be a good thing for the country, as the country that had been utilised in beef-raising would be turned over to dairying, and the output of butter and cheese would show’ a corresponding increase.

“I believe that, within three years, the output of dairy produce can be doubled.” said the speaker. “I know of no industry that would show’ anything like the progress. Yet, through want of ready money, this much-de-sired end cannot be brought about unless the money necessary for development of dairying can be loaned, through agricultural banks, to the small farmer. His great difficulty has always been the provision of a house and farm buildings. A man may haVc one hundred acres of land, and he has use for not more than 50 acres. It will cost him £7OO to £BOO to build on his place w’hat structures he would require if it were to be put on the market. Therefore, he is unable to cut it up. If money were available, as I suggest, he could buy a herd, and a great many of the bigger landholders, who have been holding on to their land, would put it on the market, or subdivide it. Closer settlement would he achieved at far less cost than has hitherto prevailed. There is still an enormous amount of land in the Taranaki district given over to a. few sheep and cattle. Share-milking was little better than lamb or beef-raising. While land w’as rising in price, farmers kept to raising beef, but now the price was destined to go down, and land speculation had come to an end for a generation. Tn their financial arrangements, auctioneers depended more on their turnover than on the amount of their commission. The average farmer changed his stock about every two years, hut the dairyman kept his cows for a period of ten or twelve years. The agricultural bank would be a very desirable means of financing him.”