BRITISH FARMERS' VISIT.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19972, 5 July 1930, Page 18

BRITISH FARMERS' VISIT.

SOME IMPRESSION.

(TOOK OVM OWE COMIXSPOHDMT.)

LONDON, May 30.

Several members of the Farmers' Party which toured New Zealand are contributing articles or interviews to the provincial papers. These are mainly in the nature of a diary of events, but here and there are to be found comments and criticisms which may ba of interest to those who w.ere lately their hosts. ! "

Mr Charles Powell, White Crag Farm, I'imble, said to the reporter: "Australia And New Zealand are great and glorious countries, but I've never seen anything to beat this as yet.'V One thing that amazed Mr Powell was the large amount of thistles. Never, he said, has he seen so many,, with the seed blowing about like a snowstorm. Yet the farmers did nob appear to think anything of' it. "The exorbitant cost of labour," writes Mr Clifford W. H. Glossop, in the "Yorkshire Post," "is one of the principal reasons why so much land is not being farmed to its utmost capacity. There is plenty of room and scope for more labour on tho farms, but before any headway can be made the remuneration must have a definite relationship and bearing to tho price obtained for the production of the soil. Land values are far too high, they were forced up during the boom years after the war. and wcra maintained for a timo, owing principally to the fact that the Government was in tho market to land on which to sottlo returned soldiors. "Land values will take a long time to adjust themselves, owing to tho fact that such a lot of land is mortgaged, and neither the lender nor the borrower can afford to see it depreciate overnight, even if only to ite truo value. •The possibility of over-production is New Zealand must not be overlooked, and this is probably tho point which should engage more attention, than any of tho other problems of the Dominion. ''The final impression on leaving the sunny shores of the Britain of the South is that tho prosperity of England, with her teeming millions, and of Now Zealand, with her inenjjro population, are bound absolutely ■ with tho other, and the closest harmony and friendship—the greatest stimulus to trade—must be fostered between the Mother Country and her youngest Dominion."

"To political students," writes Sir Richard Winfrey, in several provincial papers, '"'the most interesting of the. New Zealand labour laws ..will always ba that which endeavours to seltlo labour disputes between employers and trades unions by moans of public arbitration, instead of the disastrous methods of strikes and lockouts. It is a law which has been widely attacked by Socialists and Trades Unionists, but the proof of the pudding is in the- oating, nnd certainly this law has held its ground for over thirty years and is still in That, at any rate, is some tributo to.its vital principles. The awards of the New Zealand Arbitration Court and Boards show on the whole great care, a sense of responsibility, and a spirit _ of equity. I cannot help feeling we might with advantage adopt a similar method in the Homeland."

In another place, Sir Richard Winfrey writes: I have only one complaint, to make of the trading community of New - Plymouth., They charged me 12s 6d for soleing nnd hocling a pair of shoed, and they charged a lady member of our party Is for an ounce of peppermint drops. I hope that is not a fair-sample of the cost of other commodities in this fair city." Referring to a particular farm in the Taranaki district, Sir Richard says:— "Now I come to tha secret of the Rreat fertility of this farm. The land is dressed with two cwt of .superphosphate and two cwt of basio slag per acre once every year, and six cwt of lime onco in three years. .The cost id: Superphosphate, £5 a ton ; basic slag, £4 10s; and lime, £l, which the Government, in order to encourage the liming of land, carry on their railways the first hundred miles free. There, then, is the secret of making highpriced land pay. Put plentv into it, and you get Aplenty out. That surely is true al! the world over."