The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1924. A LANGUISHING INDUSTRY.

Evening Star, Issue 18628, 8 May 1924, Page 6

The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1924. A LANGUISHING INDUSTRY.

Mr Edcjkcomhk, of the British Overseas Trade Department, who i,s accompanying the naval squadron on its Empire voyage, had some interesting things to say to members of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce. Ho explained his mission as being to obtain some understanding of dominion problems. Ho avoided reference to politics, and therefore did not touch on Imperial Preference when dealing with the difficulties existent in Britain and her dominion?. In (he matter of production he found New Zealand’s progress “perfectly astounding,” a result largely due to the development of Hie cow and the sheep. On Hie other hand, lie had to confess that Britain’s difficulties largely arose from the fact that industrially that country was over-developed, while agriculturally it. was under-developed. Britain, he said, had not given sufficient attention to the development of her soil. This is a matter to which periodic attention is called by British economists and politicians. Nearly eight years ago some contrasts were drawn between British and German primary production by Air T. 11. Middleton in a book entitled ‘The Recent Development of German Agriculture,’ and some of the conclusions reached were that on a farm of 100 acres the British farmer feeds from, forty-five to fifty persons, the German from seventy to seventyfive persons; the British farmer grows fifteen tons of corn, the German thirty-three tons; the British farmer grows eleven tons of potatoes, the German fifty-live tons; tho British farmer produces four tons of meat, the German four tons and a-quarter; tho British farmer produces seventeen tons and a-half of milk, the German twentyeight tons; and the’German farmer also produces two tons and three-quarter® of beet sugar. The startling differences were not attributed by Mr Middleton lo superior German husbandry, but to the Wurman agricultural policy, with its admirable machinery—administrative, educational, and commercial —set up to lead, teach, and finance the German agriculturalists. In this respect, perhaps, Air Edgecombe may have noted in New Zealand something corresponding to the German system in tho activities of our Department of Agriculture.

.Every British Government lias had an agricultural policy in the forefront, of its programme. Air Baldwin proposed to try to lift what is still referred to as Britain’s leading industry from its admittedly forlorn state by protective duties to help the British farmer, but an industrially over-developed country very emphatically declined making any such experiment, and turned the Government out. As to the present Government, the National Council of the Independent. Labor Party recently gave the main points of its agricultural policy as tfto nationalisation of the land and the organisation of agriculture as a national service on a co-operatiie basis, with State regulation of the purchase, importation, and storage of staple foodstuffs to stabilise prices over a period of years. A feav days later Mr Ramsay MacDonald, on meeting the House of Commons for the first time as Prime Minister, declared that British agriculture needed a stimulus to fight, its own battles. His party would not entertain the idea of tariffs or bounties, of protective duties or State subsidies, but would bo prepared to make Government loans to the industry and foster co-operative enterprise, particularly in the marketing of produce: while it would also establish a wages board for farm laborers. It will bo noted that the Prime Minister omitted laud nationalisation from his programme, probably for reasons of expediency. If some of the current writings on the state of British agriculture form an accurate picture, then it is putting matters very mildly to say that it needs “ a stimulus to fight its own battles.” One critic, commenting on the Labor Government’s proposals, says '• the new Minister of Agriculture outers upon a realm of broken hearts and lean purses, of antiquated methods and congenital inefficiency among the rank and file.” As, to the pledge to restore to the latter the Agricultural Wages Board, he writes that “even this will not produce Hood from stone or adequate wages from farmers with one foot in the Bankruptcy Court.” The Linlithgow reports threw a good deal of light on the reasons why farmers are struggling in the (oils. The effect of those reports has been summarised as showing that the British fanner “ is being robbed directly by middlemen and indirectly by rings and combines.” The com grower remains in the hands of millers and merchants. So grotesque are some of the conditions that the farmer who takes Ids wheat to the miller receives less for the grain than he must, pay for its offals. The dairy farmer is in the hands of the United Dairies. Producers of beef, mutton, and pork are victimised by the rings, there being large areas where the farmers are in the pockets of the cattle dealers. War taught the butchers and dealers to combine, and they have established conditions to combat which it is urged that all combinations to buy and all resales subsequent to purchase most be recorded or controlled. Some drastic ymy if peoded pf bringing .it «. . .—-——«■

In heel those who, possessed of friends in high pi, 'ices, amass fortunes at tho expense not only of the, farmer and his laborer, hut of r he poorest classes of town folk. There have recently been rumors of tho British Government's intention to introduce anti-profiteering legislation, ami that it is needed is shown by tho Linlithgow reports, the precarious financial state of agriculture, and the high cost of living. Some of tho evils complained of in Britain aro nascent in New Zealand. There is wide difference, for example, between the price the producer gets for his milk supplied for town distribution and tho price tho consumer pays for it. It would ho worth the householder's while to make a calculation of the equivalent price of butter if tho milk used for its manufacture were to cost 7d per quart. Iho result would amaze him.