JOHN BRIGHT ON AGRICULTURE. TO THE EDITOR.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1507, 2 March 1882, Page 2

JOHN BRIGHT ON AGRICULTURE. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — Thespeech on agriculture, delivered by the Right Hon. John Bright to the men of Rochdale, and published in the Times last week, is worthy of more than a passing notice by the farmers of Waikato, for although circumstances are widely different here to what they are in the old country, many of the utterances of Mr Bright are equally applicable, and come with a like force to us out here, as to those to whom they were more immediately addressed. True we have not in New Zealand that variation of climate to contend against that the English farmers have, but with them we have low prices to put up with. The good old times of fifteen years ago are gpne, and are now become only a thing to be talked of. lythink we out here may accept as a fact what Mr Bright says, that we can never expect to receive again an "unnatural price" for our produce. There is no longer to be scarcity and high prices caused by the demands of an unsettled and money-spending population. We may make up our minds, then, for low prices to be the rule of the future, and they who are in the better position to accept them will be the best off. To make up for this falling off, increased production will have to be stimulated. Two bullocks will have to be fattened where hitherto only one has been, ten sheep will have to be kept where only five have been, and an extra ten bushels of wheat per acre will have to be extracted from the soil, and to do this more capital will, of course, be required. And here I would express my fear that what Mr Bright says in reference to English farmers is equally true of ourselves, viz.: that "another adverse condition" from which we suffer, and perhaps to an equal extent as they do at home, is the want of more, or a sufficient amount of this commodity. He says that "the farmer, unfortunately, have farms twice as large as the capital by which they cultivate them. His capital is only onehalf what he requires and his position is therefore one of embarrassment." The sooner we recognise and acknowledge this fact the better it will be for ourselves. What I advocated before the Cambridge Farmer's Club six years ago, and for which I was laughed at for my pains, I do to-day with equal force that until we bring down our acreage to a reasonable amount — an amount more in accordance with our capital, and make farming more of a business and less of speculation, we cannot hope or expect to see any improvement. I know that the pride of proprietorship rebels against such a step as this, but better a small farm well cultivated, than a larger languishing and unproductive for want of means. More capital means Letter cultivation of the soil, more production, more stock, and hence less liability to the adverse circumstances to which we are now subjected. It is only by stimulating the productiveness of the soil by means of increased capital, cultivation, skill, and industry, that farming in the Waikato will now be made to pay, and to this "we must therefore give ourselves.—l am, &c, Henry Buttle. Arlington, Ohaupo, February 28th 1882.

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