SALE OF FARMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1938, Page 3

SALE OF FARMS

ACTIVITY IN MANAWATU (By Telegraph—Press Association.) PALMERSTON N., June 28. “Probably more farms have changed hands in this district in the past six months than in the previous two years,” said one whose calling places him in close contact with such matters, in an interview. “While the farms are in the main dairy farms, quite a number devoted to sheep have also found new owners. “To some extent this has been brought about by a section of investors who have been anxious to invest their funds in freehold land rather than in Government securities and industrial shares They are of the opinion that in doing so they have real value as security. Also quite a number of people have been going out of dairying because of the scarcity of labour, which has been almost impossible to obtain. These people have thus been forced out of dairying by circumstances over which they have no control. ‘The level of values of live stock is considerably lower than at this period last year, this being' brought about in the main by a feeling of insecurity in regard to the state .of markets for primary products in the forthcoming year,” he continued. “This insecurity has been amplified in the sheep industry by the recent outbreak of facial eczema in the Waikato, where losses have been much heavier than reported through the Press. Up to the present confidence has not been restored to a degree sufficient to warrant restocking in quite a large area in the north. As soon as confidence is established the markets should show a firming tendency.”