NOT GUNS BUT BUTTER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 114, 29 August 1941, Page 11

NOT GUNS BUT BUTTER

Visiting Expert Seeks Knowledge on Homely Topics

S if to prove that the world is not entirely preoccupied with war, H. Bronson Cowan answered a Listener telephone call last week and acknowledged that he was: Research Director of the International Committee on Real Estate Taxationan organisation which represents: A combifiation of interests in Canada, the United States, and Britain, including: The London County Council, the Canadian Federation of Mayors of Municipalities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He is also travelling as a representative of the U.S.A. ‘Department of Agriculture. In search of inforthation about such homely subjects as butter, dairy factories, and. taxation on unimproved values, Mf. Cowan is making his way across the Pacific between Canada and South Africa by way of whatever steamship routes the war leaves open to him. Dairy Produce, And Taxes Otherwise, the war is not officially his business. He is occupied with arguments of a different sort. The organisations he fepreséents, for instance, want to know exactly why and by what methods New Zealand achieves greater efficiéney in dairy production than is reached in the countries he comes from. They also want to know about the workings of the unimproved value taxation system here, in Australia, and in South Africa. To ask questions about these matters, Mr. Cowan is at present travelling New Zealand, meeting producers, local authorities, farmers’ ufion fépresentatives, dairy factory Mafiagefs, and anyone else who cafi be persuaded to give information to an experienced inquirer.

He is fot covering fields entirely fresh to him. As a farmer’s journalist, he has been interesting himself in New Zealand affairs for a vety long time. But there aré some points he wants cleared up, and he eat do this only on the spot. For example, he wants more information about the incidefice of our taxation on the unimproved value of land. Experience in America ‘Taxation by the capital afd annual systems has fot worked in the States or Canada, hé says. It has brought building trades to a standstill, kept. hundreds of thousands of meh out of work, and encouraged spectilation with its sequels: booms ahd depressions. New Zealand’s expéfience in these respects will ifiterest his people when he takes the infomation back to them. He is also making ofi-the-spot inquiries about the effect of our taxation on latge estates. He says that 50 per cent of American farmers do not own their land. Many of them rent a property for a season Of two ahd then imiove on, Many are established by largé firiancial sations. They work theif land until, per haps, payments are defaulted, and then.

move somewhere else. The result is, he says, that farms are not managed on the long-term plan as they should be. Effect On Large Estates Here, he said, few people seemed to realise just how great had been the effect of taxation on large estates. Between 1907 and 1921 it had had immense repercussions and, although Mr. Cowan said he thought that since 1921 the effects had not been so obvious, it was still clear that estates since then had not increased in size. And it was obvious that the rich farming land was in no case held in monopoly, however large might be the areas of poorer grazing country held in single hands. Asked what he thought would be the best system of land taxation, Mr. Cowan said quickly that he was not asking for trouble quite so early in his tour. We Are Efficient Superior efficiency in New Zealand’s methods of dairy production is already recognised by producers in Canada and the U.S.A., said Mr. Cowan, He wants an eye-witness account of how it is achieved. He said that competition in a world-wide trade had forced New Zealand to a high peak of efficient organisation with the result that costs of butter making were in genefal as much as one penny per pound cheaper than in his country. He spoke in praise of New Zealatid’s methods of cream collection, where road services were conducted with a minimum of overlappitig, and pointed out that the concentration of factory work in a suitable sprinkling of substattially sized factories meant in most cases a saving of at least one halfpenny per pound. In Canada, circumstances were entirely different, There had never been any competition from outside. Cream lorries owfied by seven or eight firms would travel the same roads. Factories were smaller, and therefore less economically efficient.

The situations were not an exact parallel, because Canada could not produce as much butterfat per acre as New Zealand. However, he said he thought that Canada might approach New Zealand’s efficient production economy by remodelling her system. Prodticers as well as manufacturers were asking for reofganisation, and it remained to be seen whether the Government would give them any lead. : Primary production and war production do not seem to be connected in the minds of Canadians. Except in grains, they have not competed in world markéts of agricultural produce. Mr. Cowan was asked if his country’s desire to improve its methods meant a desire to improve the national organisation for wat purposes. No, he said. National efficiency was being concentrated on actual

production. His work was not being con sidered from that point of view. Mr. Cowan was, in fact, a refreshing change from the international situation. His knowledge afd his eagerness for more information about what taxes go on the land and what fruits come out of it, were reasstiring pftoof that the world still goes round while the Mayots of Canada and the U.S.A. can sefd a research expert on a journey round it.