NEW ZEALAND FARMING.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20089, 19 November 1930, Page 16

NEW ZEALAND FARMING.

IWriRE VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS. Mr !•;. Wutsuii, chairman of the Dumfriesshire Farmers' Union, who was a member of a party of British farmers who visited New Zealand, says that the opiMirtunities for acquiring land there on reasonable terms are totally different from forty years ago. The Dominion is suffering from a land boom, the aftermath of the war, and it will take years to bring down values more in keeping with present prices of produce. Success followed the men who went out at the early period with little or no money. They acquired their experience, to commence with, by hard work with fanners. They had no desire for expensive relaxations; they saved money; aud in due course were able to rent or take land on so many years' purchase from the Government. Often opportunities occurred for acquiring adjacent holdings, and in this way many are now large landholders, aud arc independent. Numbers of them who accompanied the British tourists on the homeward .journey for a twelve or eighteen months' holiday stated they would be prepared to re-live their life for the ample reward they had secured. Share milking is a means by which many have succeeded —i.e., the farmer provides the land, cows, and milking machine, and the share milker finds labour for milking, feeding calves and pigs, and generally keeping the dairy and cattle pasture fences, etc., in order. The share milker's reward is generally from 40 to .">0 per cent, of the returns if he shares all risks. Working conditions are very pleasant, and little or no provision requires to be made for the winter feeding of stock. A new land tax is now being levied on larger landholders, with a view to encouraging closer settlement, anil this, with the increased use of fertilisers, could add very considerably to Dominion exports of dairy produce. But while the management and cultivation of the arable areas of Canterbury and Southland would compare favourably with average conditions at Home, there are no attempts made to cut down the Scotch thistle, which grows to perfection, and in a few years will be a scourge.