Farmers’ Troubles

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 102, 24 January 1933, Page 11

Farmers’ Troubles

gj r .—As a farmer who has had to face the hardships of more than one depression I write to protest against the continual demands that are being made by a certain section of the farming community for compulsory assistance from the State and the mortgagees and others financing them. This can only be regarded ns dole-seeking under another guise. These are the men that hang over the fence watching the real farmers at work battling against the depression, and exclaim, “AVhat a terrific financial collapse there will be if w_e arc not specially assisted to carry on!” They speed in their motor-cars to meetings where they join in the cry that interest cannot be met, and assist in framing resolutions demanding special treatment and assistance. They have received every consideration. Had they exercised reasonable (judgment in undertaking their obligations, aud managed their farming as such a business should be managed, they would have found themselves in a better position to-day. AVhen sheep-farmers insist on producing year after year coarse and often badly put-up wool for a market that demands finer sorts; when men on farms capable of running profitably herd of cows in conjunction with other branches of farming, or where, by studying market conditions, could, devote a reasonable area to growing grain, grass-seed, etc., decline to do so because it is ‘ too much trouble,” thus to augment thenincomes, it is evident they have largely themselves to blame for much of their trouble. , There are to-day many men on farms the effective working of which is quite beyond their abilities and their available capital. They have been eager to emulate more capable and successful men, and, failing to realise that farming is a business requiring capital, skill and scientific management, have attempted too much. In such a crisis as the present these are the men that must inevitably come to grief; but that is no reason why the community as a whole, and those in particular that have trusted and assisted them financially, should be forced to make further sacrifices to allow them to attempt to .carry on longer at a loss to themselves and the State. . The unfortunate thing about it is that all farmers —even those who, with their reserve funds, business ability and farming skill, might have carried on fairly v.-fj;—are being adversely affected by the ill-advised action of a section of their fellows and the results of legislative interference. Economic forces cannot be swept away by such means, and the inevitable loss of confidence and frightening away of capital from farming is likely to hare serious consequences unless steps are speedily taken to bring about the cessation of interference and the guaranteeing of the security of invest-)neuts.-I am. I’almerstou North, January 19.