Hill Country Economics

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 284, 28 August 1944, Page 4

Hill Country Economics

Sir, —Business men know that when costs equal prices, at the marginal limit of a business, they stop at that point. If prices rise, and costs are stabilized, they can expand again till the limit is again reached. Consider the hill country as the marginal end of the farming business, and it will be realized that millions of acres are dependent. for _ their future as farming land on this price-fixing budget. As a farmer who has seen the decline and fall of the hill country for the last 30 years, I think it is time the people generally had the position before them. About four million acres of this land has gone out of production, and hhndreds of thousands more are on the way. This is due to a deliberate policy on the part of the Government, and althought I realize that such a policy has the justification of expediency, I am interested to know if it is to be continued into the post-war world. Expert authorities say that it takes two and a half acres of fertile land to feed one person. They say further that there is not nearly this area available for each of toefay’s inhabitants of the worla. Mr. Nash illustrated this when in his budget speech, he said the delegates at Hot Springs reported that more than half the people they represented never got sufficient food to maintain normal health. And yet he comes back to New Zealand and by with-holding part ot the produce prices, ensures that millions of acres of fertile land will produce nothing but scrub and fern! What is the reason behind this? . ,We have in this country about eight, million acres of ploughable land, fertile and well-improv-ed, served by railways, highways, schools, telegraph and power lines. .This land is sufficient to provide food for more than twice our present population. In addition to this land, we have improved at a much greater cost in human effort and determination, another sixteen million acres of hill country. This generally has no rail service, is poorly roaded, and has few public utilities. . Is New Zealand to carry on with the policy of throttling settlement on fertile hill country while half the woi'idis short of food? This is one of the postwar problems I should like the people of this country to consider very carefully if they hope for “peace in our time.” —I ani, etc., F. K. PEARCE. Upper Waitotara, August 25.