The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1880.

Temuka Leader, Issue 245, 20 March 1880, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 1880.

The present harvest is not likely to bring the relief to the agriculturalists in South Canterbury that they at one time were led to expect. The yield of grAiu everywhere is most abundant, but, excepting wheat, the prices arc not remunerative. Even wheat is not realising anything like the price that was calculated upon when the seed was put in (he ground. With an extremely short harvest at Home, and the granaries of the world nearly empty, grain growers and corn merchants alike calculated upon much higher prices to prevail this season. Barley has kept a fair value, perhaps as high as most people expected. As for oats, no one believed they would rule so low With a high price in prospect for wheat, farmers naturally expected a relatively high price for the other cereal. In former years this was the case, hut the order of things are entirely changed. Various causes have operated to hring this about. Public works led to expenditure of money drawn from Homo. The free circulation of money kept tradespeople prosperous, and a land mania set in. When this took hold of men’s minds the most extravagant schemes for enhancing tho value of land were set on foot. Banks and loan societies were flush of money, which must bo put in usury . With money plentiful, there was not wanting men ready enough to embark in largo land speculations. A few were lucky enough at the outset to be able to sell their purchase a at often more than 100 per cent profit. This was enough : the whole country was overrun by land hunters, surveyors, Government officials, °nd tradesmen, [and even

small farmers wove carried away with the idea of becoming rapidly rich. It was no use warning them that these good times would not last. “Laud, laul,” continued io bo the cry. In one year nearly a million and a half of money was received for the Crown lands in Canterbury alone. Prices reached an extravagant height : Ll2, Ll 5, L2O, and even L 25 an acre for ordinary agricultural land was not very unusual It was in vain that the few toll the many that no ordinary fanning would pay interest fur sir h outlay. The Land Offices were thronged with anxious buyers Largo estate owners brought their clu aply bought estates into the market, and received LlO to Ll 5 an acre for Laid (hut only cost them L2 or less. While this was going on, warning comes fro ■’ England that a commercial crisis had commenced. That was ihe signal fur our banks to curtail their credits. This, in turn, led to forced sales, and reduction of prices, which, being followed by two dry seasons, and unremunenilivo harvests, brought many men, hitherto well olf,to their knes Not a few were laid prostrate altoge her. During tho year 1879 more bankruptcies look place in New Zealand than, perhaps in any country (with similar population) in tiny part of the world. This, as a matter of course, clucked speculation in land; the Government coffers became empty, and as a consequence, trade uas bad. Wool ecu tinned low ; land revenue became almost nil. Stock, particularly cattle and limfieß. came down in value often more than 50 per cent.. and when the harvc.si (now ended) was at hand, it was looked forward to with the hope of its being a panacea for all the evils that the country Was suffering from. N"". how stands .'lncuse J The crops have been abundant, and gathered in good < *r«lyr, but run t > not at hand. Jf grain growers save anything over expenses it all go.-s to wipe out old scores, and will not do it. V.'o now see one filing clearly demonstrated ; that high prices for grain will not again rub-, and except in scan ns that arc remarkable for short crops all ov>t, a higher price than 3 s for wh at and 2s for oats ongh t not to be counted upon. Wo repeat th.-id' we believe prices at Homo will k.-op up 5 and that tin- next harvest will find prices in thellouie market higher than even now; but tbc contingencies are no many tha this ought not to bo calculated upon A!, though it is a fact that neither Russia in the Baltic or Black S<-a will he able to produce so much corn, and tho Galifornian yield i.s almost cm lain to ho less m-xi. harvest, y«-i there is next to a ■ crUiuty of a European war, which would add largely to freights. Tho lam.-[it to bo derived from a high price at Homo, usual under ordinary circumstances, cannot be at prosent counted upon. What, thou., arc farmers to do 1 Grain they must grow ; low prices they must submit to. Too principal remedy is to keep down expense of pro. dilutions. The value of land has boon run up to too high a figure, and owners in leasing have been claiming too high rents When land goes beyond LlO or Ll2 an aero, it will not pay in ordinary farming. This should be remembered by all who intend purchasing land at the furthcoming great Canterbury land sales. Another feature is the scale of servants’ wages. Common ploughmen have been receiving L7O to LBO a year and found. Far'itiers cannot pay this wage. Why should this high scale continue ? L 35 to L4O a year is now as g. od ns LGO was ton year ß ago. Then, again, think of having to pay servant girls from L 25 to L3O a year and found ; this is perfectly ridiculous. L!5 a year is much beyond the run of wages in England and Scotland. Now the two classes enumerated arc not in worse circumstances than their fellows at Homo. Every requisite can be got as cheap,even cbea ( er, than at Home. Clothing of all sorts are, in many cases, under the prices of similar articles in rural districts in the British Isles. Boots and shoes are now as good and cheaper. Why sho ild wages be bo high? These classes have no other outlay ; bed, board and lodgings, superior to any in the Old Country, is provided for them.; (ho labor, does not entail more, or so much, wear ami tear. Why, then, should they bo able to make money so rapidly, at the expense-of ruining the producer or cultivator of the soil? In the case of servant girls, a revolution is required, and the Government should see to this by importing females of good character and abilities. In no country that wo know of, is tho female elasa so well paid as in New Zealand. Take our educational institutions for instance: a girl of eighteen with a fair modicum of education, winch costs her parents almost nothing, can command her LBO to LIOO a year for four hours a day, five days a week. In dressmakers’ establishments and factories L2 to L 4 a week are earned by girls who can live at 12s to 15s a week. These salaries, wo repeat, are altogether out of proportion to the incomes of people in business, no matter what that business bo. Therefore wo aay it fearlessly, regardless cf giving offence, a lower scale of salaries must be adopted if industrious people arc to bo allowed a roof above their heads. It will bo said that with all these advantages the workers do not make money. How could they ? In the case of tho male population a free expenditure in drink in most cases, and a foolish waste in frivolities in others, soon run up a bill ; while in tho case of the fevna’e portion extravagance in dress soon swallows up half-a-year’s earnings. If the

wages were lower greater care would be taken, and at (lie end of the year a larger balance would be at their command to put in the bank than is the case now, and ti e employers of labor could go on improving their lands, with a better chance of obtaining a reasonable return for their labors and expenditure of money We have touched at the root of the evils under which agriculturalists Buffer A united effort on tlioir part would go far to secure the desired result, and we do not see any harm will bo done to Hie laboring classes (male or female) by compelling them to be more economical The action of a portion of the Dunedin unemployed in declining to accept less llian 7s a day at present deserves the greatest reprobation It will bo seen that the Ternuka-Oxford railway line to Kakahu i« soon to bo tendered for, but we warn Ibe unemployed that unless (hey are prepared to accept work at 5s a day they run a chance of being shut out altogether The present is a trying time to one and all Why should not the laboring classes agree to take their share of the bad times 2 The Government have no money to squander, and well it is that they have not, therefore it is a duly on the part oi working men to take a share ;if the troubles of the colony, and tints lend a helping band to bring about again a time of prosperity Only frugality, from the Premier downwards, can do this It is no use being clamorous fur public works of magnitude, and no sane man in New Zealand would support farther borrowing lie no- forth wo nnv-i rely upon our own resources, neither ie it any use prembmg IVoicclmn, which is only putting money into one pockr-t by taking it out of the other.