FARMING FAILURES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18916, 3 February 1927, Page 13

FARMING FAILURES.

TO TM EOITOB or THS »8133 Sir,—l was very pleased to read a letter signed Te Koroheke in your correspondence columns to-day; it waa high time someone put the position in plain language, the cause and the remedy—\\z., indulgence and luxury on the one hand and closer attention to business on the other—before the farmer of the present day. I have every .sympathy with the man on the land who sticks close to his work and is no respecter of the hour day when a job has to be finished, and advantage taken of the weather in this uncertain climate, but there can be little doubt that the motor-car has introduced a very demoralising element in his life in the case by which he can slip away to all sorts of gatherings, leaving his farm to take care of itself, or, perhaps, with a paid hand to go as he pleases. With greater attention and a fair chance for the land, one should hear of fewer bankruptcies, though, of course, I admit thero are cases of hard luck in farming afl in any other occupation; hut there is another, and perhaps more insidious and demoralising cause in the ease with which advances can be obtained, not to 6penk of the bankruptcy law. which makes failure to pay his debts such a light offence as long as a man can show he had not exceeded the ''standard of living.'' Not only is no punishment inflicted so long as 110 fraud can be proved, but society holds very lightly what in older times used to he regarded as dishonourable, rendering such a transgressor a person to be shunned and ostracised, and he is speedily rehabilitated and excused as linliiekv. That phrase, "standard of livinir.*' is responsible for a great deal of wrongdoing inasmuch as it encourages and endorses extravagant an.l luxurious tastes and living, whereas tlm onl.v justifiable standard for an honest man should be his income and ability to pay his way regardless of the standard set by his more affluent and won It hv, or, at any rate, more luxurious and extravagant neighbour. Like the term "living wage" so much naraded, and. I exnect, coined by Labour, it lends itself to gross abuse in its interpretation, which T believe is accentuated by its nrreptanoe in the Arbitration Court.—Yours etc. TWENTY SHTT.T.TVOS l\ THE POFXD. February Ist, 1927.