EARLY ACTION

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20508, 26 May 1938, Page 8

EARLY ACTION

It is to be hoped that the Government, at the party caucus, will be able to place before the Labour members its plans for assistin’- the producers who have been so hard hit by the outbreak of disease among stock. The Prime Minister has promised that something will be done, and if the maximum benefit is to lie derived, as far as dairy fanners are concerned, early assistance is essential. The first task will be to ascertain as accurately as possible the extent of the losses. At the present time these, in the aggregate, and in some instances oil individual farms, are matters for conjecture. Farmers with (looks of sheep will not know the full extent of their losses until lambing is completed next season. Unfortunately there is reason to fear that the recent outbreak will mean a serious reduction in the lambing percentages in this district, and so severe losses to the owners. The farmers set up a committee to represent them in dealings with the authorities about the campaign to eradicate the disease and it is probable that the members of that body, or some of them in'conjunction with men engaged in the stock trade, could ascertain more accurately than any departmental officer what individual losses have been incurred. Such a committee could meet the farmers on their own ground, enjoy their confidence and understand their problems in all aspects. There would be no grounds for supposing that such a committee would tend to be more generous than would an official or officials from a Government Department. Their own reputations as sound judges would be at stake, and they would have only one obligation, namely, to make provision for a reasonable measure of assistance as individual cases warranted. The need for some assistance is not solely in order to keep the men on their holdings. The economic stability of the Dominion depends upon a steady increase in production, and unless some help is forthcoming for many farmers where this stock scourge has been prevalent then production must fall. There must be some adverse effects because the re-stocking of a farm does not represent increased production power, but it would do something to prevent a serious decline. With the opening of a now season approaching action taken now would be of the maximum benefit, both to the producers and to the State.