TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 12, 15 January 1934, Page 6

TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

PRIMARY PRODUCTION. DIFFICULTY OF CONTROL. (By PRO BONO PUBLICO.) Schemes for the regulation of production make their appearance about once every two or three months, and some recent proposals are undoubtedly very interesting, but for the most part they have little point for us in New Zealand. What strikes me chiefly about them, in fact, is that they are generally concerned with the output of the manufacturing industries, which have always shown marked ability to contract or expand at will, whereas the production of foodstuffs and raw materials is rarely considered.

The United States scheme of subsidising farmers for the reduction of their crop areas is at best a temporary measure, as the Government itself recognises. The American hope is that the prices of primary produce will be restored by the monetary policy, and obviously it would be impossible to continue the subsidy system indefinitely. The plan of reducing the area under crop was designed, indeed, solely with the idea of allowing accumulated stocks, of wheat, for instance, to be worked off, and the expectation plainly is that when the world gets back into its stride again consumption will once more be equal to the maximum output.

Earlier methods, such as that adopted by Brazil of burning thousands of tons of coffee beans, had the same temporary objective. It is stated that Denmark is destroying cattle by the thousand, solely with tlio idea of keeping down the production of dairy products and beef. This seems to me to be a policy of extreme desperation, if the report is true. Denmark, with its highly organised co-opera-tive system, ought to be capable of something better. Indeed, it is the country to which one would look first for a guide to Now Zealand.

My own conviction is that we shall have to undertake the organisation of all our primary industries on a national scale in the near future, and that the organisation ought to be carried out and controlled by the farmers themselves, and not by the State. The Government could, no doubt, provide the facilities, just as it did in the formation of the Meat Board. Clearly the control will have to extend beyond the marketing. The scheme will have to be a co-operative one, involving the formation of 'farming groups, and the actual farming operations will have to be under group direction. The present system of individual farming is too inflexible. Each 'farmer goes his own way, and it is impossible to adjust the output to market conditions. Some scheme of the kind is particularly necessary in Canterbury, and would be more valuable in that province than probably in any other, but the general principle applies to the whole Dominion. We are working towards the ideal, with our Meat Board, Dairy Produce Board and Wheat Board, but these are exclusively marketing controls.