SHEEP FARMING INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1939, Page 3

SHEEP FARMING INDUSTRY

STATE ASSISTANCE SOUGHT. DEPUTATION TO MINISTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) ■ WELLINGTON, This Day. State assistance for the sheep-farm-ing industry was sought by a deputation from the New Zealand Farmers’ Union which waited upon the Prime Minister, Mr Savage, and the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Lee Martin, yesterday. It was suggested that the Government should find between £5,000,000 and £7,000,000 to place the sheepfarmers on a financial basis. The Prime Minister said the Government had already made a preliminary investigation. He was convinced that a guaranteed price was the solution of the proolem. Consideration would be given to the representations, but he Was not going to set up a Royal Commission to investigate the position. The members of the deputation were the president of the union. Mr W. W. Mulholland, and the Dominion secretary, Mr A. P. O’Shea. Mr Mulholland said an adverse position in the sheep-farming industry had developed very rapidly and far oeyond anticipations. It appeared that in the near future more farmers would be forced off their farms than had actually gone off during tne slump. The tragic part of the position was that those now threatened with loss of thenfarms were among the best of the Dominion’s farmers. The misfits, the people who would not make a reasonable go at farming, and those who should never have been farmers had been dropped during the slump, ■ and those who were being forced off today were the men wno were most wanted in the industry. A number of men between 50 and 60 years of age with a lifetime of experience were in danger of being lost, and that was a serious thing from the national point of view. Mr Martin said he would not agree that more men would go off their farms than during the slump.

Mr Mulholland said that there were a number of cases within his knowledge of sheep-farmers who had been put off their farms or threatened ■ Mr Martin: Who by? Mr Mulholland: By the mortgagees.

An indication of the position was the Reserve Bank’s analysis of the trading banks’ advances in February, he said. That analysis showed that stock and station agents' advances had increased by over one million pounds during twelve months. That indicated that the industry was losing money.

Th Prime Minister: It is a fair indication that they have got some money to lend. There must be some security or the banks would not lejrd. I think it will be admitted that when the banks are willing to lend it is not depression. Unfortunately, they will not lend then. I suggest the farmers want money and the banks lend because the security is good. The banks are not advancing money just to meet farmers’ accounts, but because they think the farmers will make good. Mr Savage said he could not understand why the sheepfarmers would not take a guaranteed price from the Government. A guaranteed price would give them some stability. Mr Mulholland: I prefer not to discuss that. It has be.en referred to our conferences.

“We want to, find some means of helping the sneep-farmers.’’ said Mr Savage, “but, if I am expected to reduce other people’s incomes to help them, I tell you frankly that I am not going to do it?’ Mr Savage said that the Government had been told from time to time that costs must be reduced, but no one could say how that was to be done without reducing wages, and that was not the way to prosperity. Mr Mulholland said it would make a great 'difference to the sheep-farm-ers’ reaction to a guaranteed price if the Government could mention a figure.

Mr Savage: 1 couldn't give you a figure here today. We have got to have an investigation .to see if the men should be kept there. The sheepfarmers are not all on hill country, and their position is a national responsibility. We want to help them even if we have got to give a guaranteed price. I know that would not please the speculators. Mr Savage said that he agreed that assistance was required in some cases and he was suggesting that it should be handled on lines similarly to the dairy-farming industry. It would be better to do that than to let it drag on for years while commissions and committees investigated. Whatever losses were made from time to time were a national affair.

Every single personal representation that had been made, said Mr Martin, was made by men who were being pressed by the stock and station agents and by the mortgagees. They had been carried through slump conditions, but for some reason they were not being carried today. The present position had arisen through a drop in prices through unfavourable climatic conditions.

Mr Mulholland said the effect of climatic conditions was still to be felt. The present positon was due to the relation of costs to returns. Mr Savage said that he was still convinced that a guaranteed price was the solution. What would be the result if they took a vote of the woolfarmers on a guaranteed price? he Mr Mulholland said that where the guaranteed price had been discussed at meetings the majority had been against it, but he could not say what the general body of sheep-farmers thought.