FARM PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 March 1939, Page 5

FARM PROBLEMS

MR HAMILTON ON COSTS & RETURNS PRESENT EARNINGS BELOW STANDARD. LEAVING OUT VALUE OF LAND. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WANGANUI, March 3. In the course of a tour of.the North Island, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Hamilton, arrived at Wanganui last night from Hawera, accompanied by his private secretary, Mr C. H. Williams, and Mr T. G. Wilkes, a member of the headquarters staff of the National Party. Today Mr Hamilton met Westmere farmers and country members of the party organisation, and he also visited the-Wanganui Health Camp, the Steel Pipe Engineering Company of New Zealand Ltd’s works, and Kempthorne, Prosser and Company’s factory. Tonight Mr Hamilton met members of the Wanganui committees of the National Party, and he will leave later for Wellington. No public meeting are being held on the present tour.

“The farmers have done their job exceedingly well,” said Mr Hamilton. “They can compare for industry and efficiency with any in the world. The quantity and quality of farm production is a credit to the men and women who produce it. The .great difficulty from the Government’s point of view is to see that a just standard of reward is preserved to those who have to sell on the markets of the world compared with those who are concerned with internal marketing. It is the duty of any Government to see that those who produce the country’s wealth nave a protected standard of living, and that standard must be on a fair comparative basis with other types of industry. “There is scant, sympathy from the Labour administration for the simple problem that the farmer’s imcome depends on the price they have to pay for ordinary farm requirements, not only on the price received for produce. Farmers, as other sections of the community, may be on a better basis when prices are low than when they are very high. . , ... “I am sure that it is fair to say that the farm lands of the Dominion are not earning standard rates of pay and 4 per cent interest on the present-day value of stock, plant and farm improvements, without any allowance for the value of the land. If the farming community were rewarded in any way comparable with,such a standard the farmer would be satisfied. And surely that is a fair request.”