BACK COUNTRY COSTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 47, 25 February 1939, Page 8

BACK COUNTRY COSTS

Sir, —It now takes 16 pence per pound to produce butterfat on land where the motor-lorry lands its load of manure “in the paddock.” What about the man who must lorry his manure from either the rail or the works and then either sledge or pack (or both) and spread his manure "by hand” on land with only fractions of the actual or potential per acre production of the dairy farmer? This fact must be allowed to sink in; it is vital. The sheep man and his “hills” are the major New Zealand! The Financial Times, December 1938. quotes the value of production in New Zealand:— Millions. Farming ..... 88.6 Factory ..... 26.7 Buildings ..... 12.4 Mining 4'3 Forestry .... 3<6 Fisheries 5 131.1 Owing to Ihe uneconomic internal costs of New Zealand, even the “average” of produce prices does not suffice to recover the farmers’ costs of production. The moment prices fall to even appreciably above this "average,” the farmer fails to play his part in the economic life of this country. To talk of the subsidies that the farmer enjoys, is to fly in the face of the facts. The farmer is "enjoj>ng” these subsidies only because internal costs have robbed him of the ability to stand on his own feet. The Makirikiri branch of the Farmers’ Union therefore decided to submit the following resolutions at the rally:— (1) That we ask that a Royal Commission be set up to investigate every factor affecting costs to the hill man. ( . 2) That " e ask for immediate relief by the remission of land tax and rates, providing that the farmer employs further labour preferably secured from those at present on public works. (3) That the Farmers’ Union formulate a long range policy. The farmer requires more information regarding his farm costs. In this respect, the New Zealand Society of Accountants can play no small part in providing the accurate and authoritative evidence so vital to the farmers’ case. There must be a national stocktaking before it is too late to establish the part played by the farijier, in our economic life.—l am, etc., R. O. MONTGOMERIE.