CHEAPER BREAD & EFFICIENT PRODUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1934, Page 10

CHEAPER BREAD & EFFICIENT PRODUCTION

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The letter in yesterday's "Post," over tho name of Mr. T. A. Frascr, contains so much food for thought that it is almost impossible to answer at reasonable length. But there aro a few paragraphs that merit special attention. Wheat growing and other branches of farming only become uneconomic when their maintenance imposes an unfair burden on tho rest of ihc community, and when the "protection" granted to these primary industries is so high as to allow the most inefficient farmer to gain a comfortable livelihood by slipshod methods.

The burden of complaint by many leading farming organisations during tho Tariff Commission sittings was that tho .secondary industries must put their house in order, compete ou level terms with manufacturers in other countries, or go out. Thus tho question may reasonably bo asked—is tho wheat farmer making the best use of h?S land? Is ho conforming to modern scientific methods of cultivation? The Government, or the community— through its Agricultural and Scientific and Research Departments—offers every facility for acquiring knowledge so that the industry has every opportunity of producing economically, while on the whole our soil and climate give New Zealand specially favourable conditions for high production.

But is New Zealand as a whole using or developing its resources to anything like its fullest possibilities? I believe thero is room for at least ten times the present rural population—only possible under an active policy of closer settlement. And I believe, too, that not for a generation has there been such a chance of resuming good country on favourable terms as today. When I say "good" country I refer to firstclass flats which in the boom were freely bought and sold up to £100 an acre; today £40 an acre would acquire large areas, while large sheep stations embracing areas of ploughable downs and drainable swamps could carry many settlors under systems of mixed farming that are now priced as sheep runs.

As chairman of a closer settlement committee for mj/iy years on the east coast, with practical farming experience and knowledge of laud values past and present, I can refer to tho results of the acquisition of five estates for subdivision. A total area of 42,000 acres in five- stations carried about 48,000 sheep and 2500 to 3000 run cattle. After subdivision tho same area carried 83,000 sheep, -6.500 cattle, including many dairy herds, but, best of all, 116 families. And today, in spite of slump, there are hundreds probably thousands, of young men, sons of farmers, shepherds, or farm hands, keen young town men, all with .some capital and experience, game to start out as producers if given a chance. Tho community benefits that will follow arc immeasurable, and will materially assist in solving our greatest trouble— unemployment.—l am, etc., CHAS. G. BLOOBE. Wellington.