FARMERS’ FINANCE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 256, 24 July 1924, Page 10

FARMERS’ FINANCE

i Si r ,—I read a speech of Mr. Hawt ken’s in your paper with very great t pleasure. He is one of the very few ’ members who seem to recognise what - the farmer is up against. Now the ; trouble is that if a country mortgage is paid off it is taken and invested in . the towns or in companies (sometimes with very had results). I know of I one case where a mortgage was press- • ed for during tho wool slump and the • farmer had to go through, as the lendi er wanted to lend his money at higher i interest with the dire result that he lost prettv well the lot. but the man who bought the farm at a very low price has made a lot of money. The : other two (lender and borrower) are ’ nut. Well, that does not make tor I increased produce, and what is the i good of big town’s fine buildings, ".tc., > if the money is not coming off the ’ land, as that in New Zealand is, where ’ it has to come from. There is no > other source, and this vear our freezi ing returns as regard sheep and lambs [ onlv show a very small increase: beef • a birr decrease. Butter and cheese : returns in price must show smaller i returns on top of slightly less made. i Then grain, potatoes, etc., are very ! bad. Look at the fact of imported i oats from Canada quoting your paper i of July 11, the not returns are less than half of what might have been • anticipated from other seasons. Wheat is very little better; potatoes are ns bad. The only bright thing is the wool, and a lot, of us sold at early sales. But there is that old saying, “One swallow does not make a summer,” and most of us had a bad winter or two before we struck summer, so are only looking through, the bars yet. I see the Prime Minister is in favour of lifting tho moratorium at the end of the year. I suppose when the order goes forth to the party “Their’s but to vote or go, theirs not to reason why.” because in one breath he says lift the moratorium and in another says their is a great scarcity of money, and it does not seem that would make more. Of course that may be wrong, because an old farmer is not supposed to know much, but’he believes less, but it means if released a lot of outside money will be required if many farmers are to stay on. To go before a Supreme Court Judge scOms to me must mean delay and mean lawyers’ expenses, which a lot cannot afford. I know the banks are against Government interference, but I have it in my mind that a good many years ago I never heard of the banks objecting when the Government came to tho rescue and saved the whole lot. I suppose that was different. Anyhow, we get used to any- ' thing in time, so we ought to get used,to forced sales. Now it is rare I to pick up our local paper without a notice either of sale by order of the mortgagee or stock under bill of sale. —I am. etc., OLD FARMER. “I WAS IN PRISON” AN APPEAL FOR BOOKS. Sir.—Part of my duties, as Presbyterian minister in charge of the Upper Hutt parish. involves a fortnightly Sunday service at Wi Tako prison, near Trentham camp, at the unearthly hour of 9 a.m.. but it is not too early for any of us. Somehow we have the time of our lives and. personally,'l am learning a good deal and forming, a wide circle of .fine .friends. There is a library, with many first-rate hooks in it, but sadly worn and discredit through long use. It is a long while since there were anv renewals or additions. and I want to appeal for help. I don’t want to be bothered with money, so no one need send any. I want a lot of those lonely books standing on your readers’ shelves, like pieces of furniture. No one reads them, and vet they are calling, asking to be taken down nnd read, and remmuned with. Mv friends at Hu Tako are hungering for them. AVill your readers look their shelves over and snare some, especially the best history, travel, biogranhv. general, and of course, novels? The parcels can he sent el+her tn the superintendent, Y T i I’nl-n. Trontham camp, or to mo. but I’d bo glad tn have the carriage paid owing to the foot that, monoi- is not one of, our s+rono points. Mv friends make bricks, hut mv iob is to try to make men, and first-rate books arc a great help.— ' *”■ C ' C - MMES The Manse. Unner Hutt.