ROYAL COMMISSION ON SHEEPFARMING

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24679, 24 September 1945, Page 4

ROYAL COMMISSION ON SHEEPFARMING

PRIMARY INDUSTRY.

- ■ ' (Specially Wrlttei tßy w. Sachin. Chairman of the The report that the New Wool Board has decided 1 a Royal Commission on sheepfaming in New Zealand, with special reference to high country runs, comprising second and third-class land upon which the bulk of our finer wools are grown, is important and mely : country runholder is a shy and Utue known bird these days. He is buried .in the back country doing every con* ceivable job—fencing, flewepickm& milking, accountancy, etc., for wmcn little labour is available; and he makes his little joke about his week, running into over 80 most of ttie year, to cover a good job. We are, however, beginning to interest ourselves in the land he occupies, in the majority of cases as a Crown tenant. Authority is telling us this land is "a national asset,” and that it is in some cases not being well-treated; that it belongs to the people, and must be preserved for posterity. The people generally,, even though they live in towns, must interest themselves in this very valuable item in our national economy. In fact they must “mind their own business : for this is everybody’s business. A Royal Commission could certainly gather together some little-known and interesting facts about this national property, on which a very valuable national industry is being carried on under difficult and somewhat painful condition! It is suspected that the production of back country fine wools is diminishing. Some big runs have gone out of production for years* A Minister of Lands said some years ago that this did not matter, as their stock was sold and dispersed to other properties. He seemed to Imagine that these other properties had miraculously increased their carrying capacity, and forgot that the grass on the abandoned places was not being turned into wool and meat. Some of these properties have turned over to coarserwoolled sheep, which it is admitted do no good to the soil and vegetation cover: but the sheepowners more or less apologetically say they must live and try to pay their way. As the owners of the land and trustees for posterity, the people of the Dominion should be able toffind out the reasons for these abandonments of productive country and these changes from suitable to unsuitable flocks. ■ Blame the Landlord? The State is the largest landlord in New Zealand. The State also controls, the prices paid for wool and the prices charged to sheepowners lor such things as woolphcks, fencing materials, petrol, and wages, some of which. have increased by more than 100 per cent, during the last five.of six years, and a few by 140 per cent.. Of late years we Have heard much from authority about the duty of landlords to give fair and equitable treatment to tenants. We want the evidence brought into thfe daylight, whether the State is a good landlord. Some say that capable Commissioners of Crown Lands and active i'and. boards have tried for years to get successive Ministers of Lands to understand anomalies and hindrances and frustrations, and accept some practical remedies, but have tried without success. The old pleasantries about the “wool kings,” of 20 and more years ago, do not seem to fit the fact* to-day—they

i for “The Press.’’) North Canterbury Catchment Boart^: never did in very many caateM cases are not unknown wbersaß posedly large prosperities are m tij| sizeable overdrafts. Some backcbaß runs are to-day badly in need of2 of subdivisional fencing, so thatS tions can be spelled and nursill rotational grazing; but fencing, *® was done for £SO a mile 40 or SOwS ago, nowadays costs more thanfß a mile, and with all costs aggrojjS as much as the income from wool* a little surplus stock, and some||S more, some good tenants cannofeS the money for this necessary impifcj ment. The question therefore cafe up, “Why should not the landloftjj this work on the landlord’s oWrajj perty?” It means an alteration IffiS law; but this is not now a bogy. i£j laws change drastically overnight?; Wool Prices >'ii There is a growing concern iS! prices for fine wools. Since 1938 fiffe (under Government control dudS! war) for wool of 56’s quality wards have risen very little—f»?fi than the costs of production—great deal less than the advanffli the prices of the coarser wools/s|( is puzzling, for the been worked out in New although the high country ruqßjH are rather inarticulate, othersaSf pointed out that a comparative; mS of costs of production, in retetjH present-and pre-war New Z« prices, and of the war-time schtjH of prices paid by the British GmSI rtient for both fine and coarse of the British wool-clip, shows tti|i New Zealand grower of fine woauj been, and is, at a considerably! □omic disadvantage. ’.iSi There are anomalies here in# Zealand in the wool price scbe|| which, even undgr stabilisation. Safe have beep remedied had the’fm growers been vociferous »|(i unionists. '-||| Soil Conservation All this has an important bu on the question of soil censorial and now seems to be a most oppin time for facts and suggestions, ftK would be obtained by a Royalja mission on sheepfarming, to be|M ered together for the iniomsffiipj guidance of catchment boarosjla want to obtain clear ideas on taps tent to which pur is due to the operations .of *9 farming over the last 100 yearis much of it has man recentlvr iHtj imposed upon What Mother NaflwHl been doing for long ages, tices may we alter or adopt a|9S to conserve our soil and .vegMn In the ordinary course of oqilffl as a sheepfarmer, can the settfipj the fair thing by his land aadaßi Same time get a living, under.ppm ing economic conditions, and:gi« point is* it necessary for community to come into fluyS either as landlord (of 10,000,000 acres of leasehold, monM in the South Island), or as titepHl of the balance between com|l prices in production for expfflpj which We all profit? The wool disposal will probably run for a dozahtap or more, must take a better cegfiiH of fine wool prices than has since 1939; so it would appear reference to the Royal Cknhtmjn must be a wide one. i*^B|