FARMERS & THEIR NEEDS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1787, 27 June 1913, Page 9

FARMERS & THEIR NEEDS.

A DIVERSITY OF VIEWS. REPLIES FROM FAR & WIDE. BUDGET No. 11. A wide range of opinion is covered in this morning's instalment of the replies, to Tjib Dominion's inquiries as to the most pressing needs of rural life. By each day's mail fresh batches of letters aro reaching this ollicc, and many other letters than thosu now appoaring are already in typo alid:waiting their tnm. The questions as originally published in tho Country Life Issue oi) The Dominion are as follow:—

1. Are the Schools 'in your neighbourhood training boys and girls satisfactorily for life on the farm? 2. Do'the farmers in your neighbourhood get tho returns they reasonably should from the sale of their products? 3. Do the farmers in your neighbourhood receive from the railways and roads tho service they reasonably ■ should expect? , i. Do tho farmers in your neighbourhood receive from tho postal service, rural telephones, etc./ the service ■they reasonably should expect? 5. Are the farmers in your neighbourhood obtaining direct benefit from the holding of Agricultural Shows? 6. Has tho work of tho Department of Agriculture been, of direct benefit to . the farmers in your neighbourhood? 7. Are tho farmers and their wives in your neighbourhood satisfactorily organised to protect their mutual buying and selling interests? 8. Are tho renters of farms in your neighbourhood 'making a satisfactory living? 9. Is the supply of farm labour in your neighbourhood satisfactory? 10. Aro the conditions surrounding wage labour on the farms in your neighbourhood satisfactory to the laMurer? 11 WHAT IN YOUR JUDGMENT IS ' THE MOST IMPORTANT SINGLE THING TO BE DONE I'OR THE GENERAL BETTERMENT OF COUNTRY LIFE?

FARM LADS TRAINED FOR CITY ' LIFE. RATA RESIDENT'S VIEWS. From Rata, near Ilunterville, comes this budget of replies:— 1. Generally the training at the public schools is good, but tends to make the boys prefer to co into officcs and for town life, rather than life ou the farm. 2. For the main products of the farm as a rule a fair return is obtained. For fruit, etc., sent to auction rooms tho returns are usually very disappointing. 3. The roads of this district are good enough for present requirements. Mors promptness in the delivery of poods on tho railway would be all improvement. 4. The postal service is sufiiciont. Telephone service could be much improved. 5 For those farmers who are trying to improve their, flocks the agricultural shows are a good object lesson. G. The work of tho Agricultural Department has been of small benefit, as the experiment stations are too far away and too expensivo to reach. 7. No organisation amongst farmers for buying and soiling that I know of. 8. Hear no complaints. •9. Supply'of labour very short. , 10. The farm labourer haa nothing to complain of as wages are high and work plentiful. 11. Cheap and efficient telephone communication between settlers' homes and a large importation of domestio servants. ' A FRUITGROWER'S VIEWS. PARLIAMENT NEEDS WAKING UP. , .A farmer at-Lower Sloutere, Nelson, who. states • that' ho writes as a' 'fruitgrower only, sends these replies:— 1. No. Tho tendency is to send the 'children into; tho city schools and professions. 2. Decidedly not. The recent glut in peaches on the Wellington market is a fair sample of what wc 'have to contend with. , 3. We are too far from the railroad to experience any benefit from it. Apart from tho main coach road, our roads are simply and absolutely an 'abomination. 4. Our postal service •is fair, and we have no. system as yet of rural telephones. 5. Very little. 6. In many ways the Department has helped lis, but the general opinion is to use your own personal experience for everything. 7. Not by any tnenns. 8. So very few men round about this district rent farms that it would be ihaTd to say. 9. No, decidedly not. Labour is scarce, and at an almost prohibitive price. 10. Yes, very much so. 11. That the members, and through them, Parliament shoulu get into closer touch with the needs of the settlers, and so help to remedy innny of the outstanding evils.

A VOICE FROM "OUT BACK." SOME EAST COAST H2EQTJIKEMENTS. A southern Hawke's Bay settler, who lives away out towards the lvast Coast, (imls tJie bad roads and difficulties of communication a heavy handicap. He says:— 1. Very few children, consequently small schools; teachers at times satisfactory, but not always. 2. Mo. Wool is reasonably good, but as tho nearest freezing works aro 70 miles away, and the railway GO, fat stock lose a lot of weight, 'particularly lambs. 3. No. Hallways, when we reach them, are all right, but a large portion of the 60 miles' of intervening road is very bad in winter./ Farmers are paying 3d. in the pound on unimproved value general rate and 1 l-sd. special rate, but owing to scarcity of metal arid consequent high cost of road-making and maintenance, tho local bodies arc not üble to do very much. What is urgently required in heavilyrated districts is a "graduated Government subsidy," eo that those districts which can make roads cheaply, and consequently strike a small rate, get no subsidy, and those districts which have to strike heavy rates get a proportionate subsidy up to i! for £ at 3d', in the £ rate, and JM- for when rat« 3 get to Cd. on unimproved value. 4. Yes. Postal and telephonic services are very good. ' 5. Yos. All farmers benefit by agricultural and pastoral shows. G. Yes,• the work done by tho Department of Agriculture 'has been and is of 'direct'benefit to farmers. I. Settlement is so scattered and roads so bad that there is practically no organisation of any sort. .... H. Yes. A good deal of land in the district was originally leased and sold in too small blocks, but, thanks to a certain amount of aggregation, farmers aro now doing well. . . 9. At times the supply of labour is inadequate, but though costly is, generally speaking, satisfactory, and would be quite so if it was not for the interference of union sccreturies, etc., with shearers and shed hands. 10. Yes. I think men in tins district are quite satisfied with wages and conditions of labour. 11. Better roads and nearer railway communication, al«i improved and consequently cheaper shipping facilities. At present all work; that is, shipping wool (2GOO bales went from hero last summer), and unshipping stores, wire, grass seed, etc.. lifts to by done with a team of bullocks in the surf, which is costly, uncertain. nncl slow. Settlers in this district would like a report on tho best means to improve this method by <i reliable authority.

A MORE PROGRESSIVE SPIRIT. SOME WOODVILLE SUGGESTIONS. According to Mr. J. B. Veale, of Woodviile, tho chief need of the farmer is that he himself should show a more progressive spirit. His answers run as follow :— 1. Yes, quite satisfactory. 2. I think they get all there is in it, and sometimes more. 3. Yes, a good service

i. Generally speaking, satisfactory, might bo a bit smarter at times. 5. Very few are sufficiently progressive to do HO. fl. Most decidedly so. 7. I reckon they are pretty keen on £ s. d. 8. Hard to sny; somo are, others, perhaps, aro not. 9. Wo cannot say this is so; we are much the samo as all rural districts. 10. If tliey were not we could not keep them. . ... 11. A little more progressive spirit to be shown by the rural population tliemEelves; in other words, help themselves, and not be always whining for spoonfeeding by the Government.

CO-OPERATION. ROOM FOR BETTER ORGANISATION. Mr. George H. Buckcridge, of Eltham, lias devoted his attention in an. interesting letter to questions 2 and 11. lo the first of these, lie says:— I answer emphatically No! I could enumerate plenty of instances to show that wlmt 1 have said is absolutely correct, but the mere iteration will serve no good purpose, when every farmer knows only too well, from his own practical experience, that tho answer I havo given is far too correct. Tho remedy for this gives the answer to the latter of # tho two questions, and is, in my opinion, the most important, thing farmers havo to do to better the conditions of country life. Wo havo Btudded all over tho greater part of Now Zealand numbers of socalled" co-operative dairy fuctones. I say "so-called" becauso they really aro ''competitive" companies, and compete against each other in the worst possible way> viz.i in tho amount tho diieotois can squeeze out of their returns annually to "pay out" for butter-fat, to capture or retain suppliers. This mad competition in "pay out," where directors aro compelled, in order to keep their suppliers, to cut down tho amount they should set apart each year for reserve fund, depreciation, etc., and to disburse, m payments for butter-fat, more than sound finance really warrants, is not co-operation. What is most needed, for tho fcettcrmont of country life, is the true spirit of co-operation, as instanced in. Ireland and Scotland, and in several European countries. The organisation by the farmers of New Zealand of their business on sound financial and systematic lines. The essence of the success of overy business is sound finance and completeness of system. In the disposal of New Zealand farmers' products, these two essentials are almost entirely wanting. There is absolutely no system in the disposal of tho farmers' products of New Zealand. Wo have splendid examples of almost phenomenal success, where farmers have realised the importance of "organisation or "system" in the disposal of their produce, and in the purchase of their refluirements, and ono need not look further than the columns of your very excellent edition of tho 14th instant to find mention of probably the very greatest of these, "Tho Irish Farmers' Cooperative .Organisation Society," as organised by that brilliant and far-sighted co-operator, Sir Horace Plunkett. ' In the 'establishment of a Farmers Cooperative Organisation Society for New Zealand, on similar lines to those the Irish farmers have eo successfully proved the efficacy of, we havo the solution of your two questions quoted above. The opportunity is now here for tho New Zealand fnrmers to follow in tho footsteps of the Irish formers, for a Farmers Cooperative Organisation Society for New Zealand is now being formed, and on similar lines to those of the. Irish farmers.

THE MAKING OF GOOD ROADS,

AND THE SECURITY OF RELIABLE LABOUR. A Tinui settler, out between Hasterton and the coast, sumg up his views thus:— I.—l have very little knowledge of tho work done in the schools. Those which are in tho country have gardens, which, if tho teacher is that way inclined, as at Tinui, are well worked by tho children, and will givo those so inclined a tasto for such work, which help 9to make home life more enjoyable. But/as tor other instruction in larm and house work, there is very little judging by thoso who coma into employment alter leaving..-' 2.—The less a mail knows about selling ind buying, tho worse .prices lie thinks i*e gets for ■ his produce j but thgro are several rebates in wool which are unjust 0 the seller. No allowance for the old vool pack, which has' a value for papernaking; 1 per cent, rebate on the weight if wool; and primage on freight, which vas au allowance to the captain when, he lad to collect his cargo, is still sometimes .dded. On the whole, the farmer gets 1 far better proportion of return from lis sales now than ho did somo twentyivc years ago. 3.—1 should say no to both parts of his question. Our live stock are much mocked about on tho railway. Putting ive stock in trains with heavy loading, uch as timber, iron, and coal, is especilly objectionable, as in shunting they re much thrown about. . Stock trains, fhere possible, should have no other proluce, and should have precedence of all ther traffic, eicept passenger. Roads are lot maintained.as well as they ought to io, and should get inoro assistance from ho Government than they do, so as to arry heavy traffic, and so feed the railrays. In granting subsidies, preference liould bo givon to districts which rate hemselves high, and the maintenance nd construction .of roads would 1m nioro beaply done if tho local bodies had arger districts to look after. They ould then all'ord to have road-making aachinery, such as stone-crushers, enines, trucks, graders, etc., and be ablo o give a good salary to a capablo enineer. , . . 4.—There has been great improvement n the' postal and telephono service of ate years. All new tenders for mail leliverios ought to be (where tho roads lermit) called for by motor or horse deivery. Motor delivery and carriage of lassengers would be a great saving of ime. Rural telephones aro mostly priato concerns. The Government charges or construction are much higher than ood lines can bo erected for. In some ilaces ferro-concrete poles are now being ised in preference to totara or Austraian timber.- Tho proposed chargo of 21 per annum for receiving and delivernf telegrams over tlie telephono seeniß to >e\ backward movement. It will ccrainly restrict the use of tho telegraph, t would also be a convenience if counry telephone subscribers could leave a .eposifc for bureau charges at the office. s.—Shows are beneficial, as showing the lerfection slock can be brought to, and lo a great amount of good in tho social utercourse which they create. G.—The Department of Agriculture has ;ono good, and is of service to tho conn-

try. | 7.—'Thero is no mutual organisation among the settlers. B.—The renters of farms are doing well. 9_Very little agricultural work is done. What little crops are grown are for feeding purposes, and most of tho work is done by tho fanners themselves. There is no doubt that if labour was as easy to manage as it used to be, nioro work would bo done, but when yon liavo got a lot of work in hand, and labour fails you, you are not much inclined to put yourself in a like position again. It is the unsatisfactory condition and incompetence of labour more than the lack that is the great deterrent in mora work being done. 10.—This opens up a wide question. There is not much accommodation lit for married men. Employers find that, though married men are more reliable, that women soon get dissatisfied in places where they cannot easily get aboirt, and therefore they are not much employed, exnept where they can be placed near to a fair road. 11.—This is largely answered in No. 3. Improve the roods and communication, and settlement will follow as a natural consequence. I write lliis as one living forty miles from a railway.