Plight of the Farmer

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 148, 19 March 1931, Page 11

Plight of the Farmer

Discussing the difficult position in which farmers are placed to-day. “.Down and Out'’ says:—"We will have to look to Parliament to see that the people who are already on the land shall be kept there, so long as they can pay a reasouonable rate of interest and that the mortgages which are falling due are postponed for three or five years after this depression has disappeared, giving people an opportunity to pay. This extension is necessary to meet this unforeseen occasion, and people should not be turned on to the road for something that has happened over which they have no control. f “Why the Goverfiment advocates cutting up large holdings to settle. people on the land at such a time as this is hard to understand. To-day there is overproduction. and wheu other countries are going to cut down the acreage of wheat grown and destroy one-third of their flocks of sheep, what is the use of putting more people on fhe land, for there are enough struggling on the land at present. Years ago, I put teu thousand pounds into a general farming and dairy proposition, being incited, aided, and abetted by the Government of that day to do so. To-day, after paying interest and running expenses. I have not sufficient to live on. Now. Sir. what would the Labour Party say. if the Government suggested bringing ten or twenty thousand artisans into this country to share the bare living of the already too numerous tradesmen that are here tq-dny. You can draw your own picture of what would happen. So now, these are my feelings: I resent the Government multiplying the farms and increasing the productiveness of this country when there is no payable return for what we have already produced. I paid ten thousand pounds for my farm, and the right to work and live, and I look to the Government to protect me from being evicted. They tell us they can’t interfere with contracts between buyer and seller. Probably now they wilt make extraordinary laws to meet these extraordinary times. Why not? Though they may not be as quickly made as voting themselves floo for not having fulfilled their main platform pledge of last election, when the United Party solemnly avowed that they would get us £70,000.000 at 34 per cent., and I pictured myself paying about 4 i per cent, instead of having to pay 6 and 7 per cent., and an additional 1 per cent, because the Government did not keep its promise. I think. Sir, that there should be a law to punish anyone making such promises to get votes which they evidently had no intention of carrying out. and enjoying a position which they have no right to hold. “In conclusion, let us hope that the Hon. Mr. Forbes may achieve much more for us farmers than we see written on the wall at the present time. The farmers don’t ask for anything unreasonable —they only want an assurance of a ehance to live through these bad times ajjd an opportunity to help the country back to prosperity."