HARD TIMES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 83, 18 January 1930, Page 7

HARD TIMES

POSITION OF THE FARMER.

A SERIOUS YEAR AHEAD. The present position of the fanner in New Zealand, and the outlook on the future, were subjects of discussion at the meeting of the Mid-Canterbury Provincial Executive of the. Farmers' Union yesterday. . The president (Mr J. R. Dalton) spoke of the hard times that the farmers were faced with. He considered that the country was being run by the extremists of the Labour Party and Civil Servants. If matters did not take a turn, the position would become still more serious. It appeared that a man engaged in a secondary industry was able to draw a higher remuneration than a man following a primary industry. This unfair position would have to be altered. Mr J. Can- said it was a very big question that the farmer was faced with, and it had been exercising his mind for spme time. One must be struck by the gradual decrease in the returns 'for primary products. This year wool would show a drop of 40 per cent, and 50 in some cases. If each bale offered at a wool sale at Christchurch were to show a drop of £lO, it would mean a loss of £BOO,OOO to the farmers. The tendency throughout was to drop. Lower prices were being experienced for lambs. He had experienced a drop of five shillings on a consignment. If this were to continue and became universal, the decrease would run into millions. There was even a prospect of a reduction in the present price of lamb. The farmers' income during the next 12 months would be very seriously curtailed. On the present prices, he did not know a farmer who could pay the Government rate of wages and still make an absolute success of his farm. Another clanger was from protective tariffs. The time had come when the farming community would have to make its position felt. Mr Carr admitted that he had painted a despondent picture, hut his facts were true, and one could not get away from facts. The farming community had done good work in the past, and would continue to do well, but it could not carry additional burdens if the other sections of the community were not going to undertake their share also.

Mr F. G. Fyans said that, as farmers, they had to face the prospect of netting a lower price for their lambs, ft was also up to them to see that they did not pay more for an article than what it would cost them to produce. Mr G. W. Leadley stated that some sections of the community were getting more than their fair share. The reason why city properties were improving in value was due ,to the fact that businesses were conducted in such a manner as to leave a fair margin of profit. If things went to one extreme they were bound to revert to other, like a pendulum. Conditions, therefore, were assured of improving in time. It had been impressed on the farmers to work harder and produce more. This had been done, and the farming community was producing more in, volume than ever before. He liad often marvelled at the amount of wealth that a "comparative handful of men and women" on the land in Xew Zealand were producing. No other country in the world was doing the same. Yet the farmer was not getting an adequate return for his outlay of capita] in primary production. When all was said and done, a levelling-up between the cost of production and the returns from production had to be made. How, he did not know. Unless they were to make their influence felt he could not say what the end would be.

Mr G. Tait (vice-president) said another economic question was the number of single unemployed men that had been put on relief work. Single men who could not find work other than relief deserved to starve.