The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1890. PROSPECTS OF FARMERS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1989, 2 January 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1890. PROSPECTS OF FARMERS.

With this issue we open a new account in the great book of time. Eighteen hundred and eighty nine is dead, eighteen hundred and ninety has just been born. The prospects of the new year are not so bright as were' those of the one which has just closed, but let us hope ' that they will not prove so delusive. "When 1889 dawned upon us we had all high hopes of a glorious year. A grand harvest was anticipated, and splendid prices were promised, but unfortunately our expectations were not realised. The grand harvest came, it was as fruitful as could have been wished, but un- . fortunately the prices were not maintaiEed. It is useless to cry over spilled milk; all that can be done is to try to learn by last years' experience, One lesson the year has taught is, that unless something extraordinary happens it is useless to expect high prices for wheat any more. Something extraordinary happened last year, and even that did not help as much. A great drought prevailed over the neighboring colonies, an insufficient supply of wheat was the result, but this was quickly supplied from California. Bo mere local failure ©f harvest in one particular country can now raise prices. This is proved by the fact that the failure in the neighboring colonies did not not do it last year. The world's supply is too abundant now to allow a small hole-in-the-corner to affect the market. If

the supply had not been over abundant the diversion of Oalefornian wheat

from the usual channel to New South Wales would hare caused a shortage somewhere else, and grain would have gone up in price there, but this did not happen. There was, it appears, more than enough wheat in the Old World to Bupply all demands, after having glutted the New South Wales market, and this proves that the supply of it is greater than the consumption. We have frequently tried to explain this. Machinery has driven mem out of employment; and millions of them are idle and consequently not consuming much food. Machinery has also increased the facility for production, and consequently there is too much produced for the consuming capacity of the people. If all men were at work, and consuming food as they ought to be, we should have better prices and every one would have been happier. As an instance of this we may point to the '* bonanza " farms owned by syndicates in America. These are vast tracts of wheat, sometimes hundreds of miles in extent, without houses and without fences. They are ploughed by machinery, sown by machinery, and cut by machinery, which cuts, threshes, and bags the grain all at once. One of the most recently invented steam ploughs ean do as much work as 60 horses, and other machines are keeping pace with this. In a paper to hand yesterday we find a description or a harvester, which cuts from 14 feet t© 30 feet- wide. It reaps, threshes, winnows, and bags from 30 acres to 50 acres per day. It is drawn by sixteen horses, and attended to by four men, With this machine wheat is rendered fit for the market at 2s per acre if the farmer finds his own horses, or 5s if horses are hired. The traction engine used for ploughing is often used, and makes the costs less. The price of the engine and harvester is £3400. The result of course, is that these syndicates ean produce wheat cheaper than the farmers, and because they have such a vast amount of it they cart, get it carried by rail cheaper. In this way prices are brought down, and farmers la America are being ruined. Then they, finance manipulate, and "corner " in a manner only known to themselves, and thus the game is worked. So far we have stated facts which we believe no one will try to dispute,

tnd the question is, What lesson do ;hey teach? To us they seem to ndicate a change. The world cannot »o on with a few heaping up enormous wealth and the many starving, and the 'esult must inevitably be a change in ndustrial systems. But they teach ilso a simpler lesson;_ they show plainly that in future it is hopeless to sxpect a high price for wheat. We may by some lucky turn of events get high prices for a few months, but in our opinion a permanent improvement in prices is out of the question. And now what is the farmer to do to meet the altered conditions ? His duty is very simple. He must cut his cloth according to his measure. In buying or renting land he must calculate the price of it on the basis of half a-crown a bushel for wheat, and he must use every means in his power to increase the population of the *eolony. Land in this colony is a long way teo dear, either to buy or lease. We have it on the best authority that several "Victorians have visited'this coloay during the past few months with the view of buying land, and settling down on it, but they all went away without having bought an inch of it, because they Said it was too dear. What we want to do first of all then is to bring down the price of land. It is no doubt very hard on those who have land to sell, but it must be done to enable the colony to progress. We cannot increase population unless we get fresh capitalists to come to give employment, and the capitalists will not come unless we give them 1 value for their money. There are in this colony five or six companies who own over- 2,000,000 acres of land, and we oughb to begin with them and compel them to sell forthwith. The Stout-VogeP Government proposed to buy out large estates, and cut them into small holdings. If that scheme had been carried out we should have had a large influx of population, but it was not, and consequently our population fled like rats from a sinking ship. Another thing is to promote local industries, and live within ourselves. The wheat land ol New Zealand is limited, and* if we were to increase the population to such an extent that we could consume all our own wheat we would be independent of the markets ©f othei countries. This is the case in Victoria she consumes all the wheat she car grow, and owing to protection the

farmers get from 48 to 5s per bushel for their wheat. With this fact staring them in the face almost every day of the week we cannot for the life of us realise how it is that farmers can object to Protection. Protection in Victoria%teans wheat at 5s a bushel, taxation for revenue purposes in New Zealand means wheat at 2s 6dj yet the New Zealand farmers say,," let me pay the taxes, but do not protect me." It is not our fault that farmers hare not seen this long ago ; we haye pointed it out to them often euough, but it is evidently no use. They must, however, open their eyes wider, and try to see facts for themselves, !