A SAD SAGA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 209, 3 September 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

A SAD SAGA.

RETURNS BELOW COSTS. AUSTRALIAN FARMING. (By M.E.S.) "Hail Storms in New South Wales." "Drought in the Wheat Lands." "Floods Destroy Crops." The headings are not unusual in our Australian news. We read of these disasters with a sigh— "Another loss to farmers." Let the New, Zealand farmer read a small book lately published about Australia, if only for the doubtful consolation of another's woes. At least the primary producers of New South Wales are to be congratulated upon one point; tney have found two capable and willing advocates, ready, although they are women, to travel two thousand miles in their own little car on a voyage of discovery, and able to record facts —they aeal with nothing else—in a simple and readable form. The authors of "Life on the Land"* were originally commissioned' by the "Sydney Morning Herald," and travelled all through the wheat and wool areas of west and north-west New South Wales, obtained .their material at first hand from an actual examination of farmers' bboks, and recorded the results with little comment and no adornment. They require none, but speak loudly enough for themselves, and to the thoughtful reader sound a warning note for the future. In every case the farmers interviewed were marvellously game, and avowed their intention of "carrying on," but an examination of the facts proves that only in the instance of the big owners, and these are a very small minority, was there any chance at all of surviving more than another year or two of "slump" conditions. And can we truly say yet that end is in sight? Farm Budgets. . The book deals with every branch of Australian farming activity. First the authors visited a sheep run, fair country and running a sheep to the acre; it is to-day returning just £100 per annum below running costs. They saw a little very rich land where dairying brings in a trifle of ready cash, but in such a climate these returns are more than precarious. Then eame the case "of the mixed farms for sheep and agriculture. Here the recorded expenses strike the reader as higher, bpth for labour and rates, than those in New Zealand. The story of the wheatgrowers is pure tragedy, not only to the "share-farmer," but to. the ownerfarmer. "Initial cost of machinery. £1000; yearly oil and kerosene bill. JlIOO." 'These are ordinary items, and in 1930, having acceded to his country's request "to grow more wneat," the

farmer received 1/7 per bushel for a crop that must return 4/ before accounts can even be balanced. There is never, of course, any thought of wages for himself or family, or returns for ; money invested; and yet the wheat farmer works sixteen hours a day, save in June and July, when he has a "holiday" and works only nine hours. His mind knows no holiday, for there is the incessant strain of worry, the ceaseless watching of the sky in hope of rain at growing time, or fear of thunder or hail at harvest. We see sad entries such as: "1927 —240 acres under cultivation; yield, nothing (drought)." Think what it means!

The authors confessed that they left the wheat lands with a sigh of. relief and turned to the sheep runs. But the tragedy is still there. We read of homesteads, treasured by the same family for generations, now slipping to decay; of neglected gardens; of children brought home from school to isolation; of tired mistresses doing all their housework and trying to teach these children; of splendid . flocks deteriorating for want of high-priced new blood; of fine runs becoming infested with rabbits and noxious weeds. Worse still is the case of the small selector, and even the big owners have had to stop all improvements, dismiss employees, and reduce maintenance, costs from £2700 per annum to £400. No wonder the towns are full of unemployed and the shops doing only half their pre-slump business. Chain of Depression. In a chapter devoted to "Country Towns" the authors show very clearly the links in this vast chain of depression. The shopkeeper is doing only 50 per cent of his former business, yet stretching credits to the farmer to breaking-point, himself paying cash to the city warehouses and being carried on a bank overdraft. Many of the stores went "off the gold standard" long ago, and take eggs —at anything from 4d a dozen! —vegetables, and_ butter, procurable only in winter, in exchange for groceries. And what of the housekeeper's point of view? There is a chapter here we would like to see reprinted in every New Zealand paper, so weary are we of the cry "But you get nearly all your living for nothing on a farm." Here, in splendidly convincing black and white, are the statistics which we bleat so continually and so ineffectually. The figures will prove to you just the cost of the "free" butter, milk, eg»s, meat, vegetables, and firewood of which the fanner hears so much and sees eo little. Here, too, are hard facts about dear country prices, transport costs, bad working conditions, hard work—and, we might add, lack of pleasure and human contact. And here, too, is a splendid tribute paid to the men and women who bear all this —and laugh and carry on. In these clays of tragedy the world is used enough to "sad sagas"; wherein, then, lies the especial interest of this account of Australian hardships? Largely! perhaps, that it might very well, save for the chapters dealing with

the wheat. lands, have been written of New Zealand, There are differences, and these, let our own sad farmers note, are mainly matters for. cbrigratulation. First, this book deals • only with New South' Wales, perhaps the' most fertile and certainly the most thickly-populated part of the continent; it-,is. quite conceivable that conditions are much worse elsewhere. Secondly, we have not the great areas devoted to cultivation of wheat, where conditions .seem almost hopeless at present. Thirdly, the Australian climate makes extensive dairying impossible, for even the. poor, farmer's wife cannot make butter without ice in. summer, nor can he profitably feed the humblest herd of ; cows. Here we have a great advantage. New' Zealand seems to rest more and more heavily upon the broad. back' of the domestic cow. Whether that humbie animal will eventually survive the strain, or the rest of the world 'succeed ; in consuming the butter now made on every sheep farm, is a point that* will not bear contemplation. At present the owner of the lordly sheep run turns a little separator very thankfully; such solace is impossible in Australia. Last but not least, there 5e our climate—we may resent our rainfall, but at. least we do • not have to carry water for miles and then see our vegetables destroyed by mineral deposits in the precious 'fluid.

Frankly, it will do the farmer no lees harm to count his. blessings than the townsman to realise more vividly the burdens of the land. This little book should find its way into every farmer's bookshelf, and into the library of every man who believes that we "grow all we need except a few odds and ends." •"Life on the r*ana: What it ■ Means To-day," -by , Hilda Abbott ■ and Gladys Owen. With a foreword by the Hon. M. F. Bruxner, D.5.0., M.L.A. (Angus and Robertson).