SOUTHLAND OATS.

Evening Star, Issue 19319, 4 August 1926, Page 4

SOUTHLAND OATS.

I TO THE EDITOR, Sir,—-An article appeared in your issue of Saturday, July 31, under the above heading, and as a merchant interested in tho business of dealing in : oats produced in Canterbury, Outgo, and Southland, you might permit mo to comment upon the article referred to. Tho contributor of this article states that “the Southland stores are to-day chock full with thousands and thousands of sacks of oats, just because wo cannot get them away to market,” and ho proceeds to say: “ There is one way, and tho only way as far as I can see, to save this great branch of agriculture, and that is to secure a regular and reasonable steamboat coastal service from tho Bln If.” | Well, sir, I do not desiro in any way ’ to oast a damper upon your contributor’s ardor and anxiety concerning tho marketing of Southland-grown oats, and I do not want him, or anyone else i who may be interested in this same subject, to form an impression from anything I am about to write, that I , hold a brief for tho U.S.S. Co., or, for i that matter, any other shipping com--1 pany, for I am writing this letter from I the_ 'Standpoint of one who earnestly desires to see a restoration of tho ex- ! tensive business wo at one time enj joyed in tho shipping of oats that were ' produced in our South Island oat-pro-ducing centres with our North Island | consuming and distributing centres. Of course, the advent of the motor car has been tho cause of diminishing ! the consumption of oats throughout the j whole of this dominion, for anyone en- ! gaged in tho shipping business has had : it hit home very forcibly that tho I quantity of oats ’ required has been j gradually becoming less and less every year as tho number of motor cars, motor trucks, motor wagons, and motor tractors has increased throughout this dominion. But tho sore point with merchants or shippers in the South Island oat-producing centres is that, during the last few vears, they have been precluded from shipping oats from these centres to our North Island consuming and distributing centres, owing to the influx of oats from Canada, Chile, and Australia. Indeed, these merchants and shippers have had to suffer the humiliation of seeing our North Island markets supplied with oats brought in from the quarters referred to, while they have been excluded from participating in our North Island business owing to the abnormally high prices demanded by the farmers for South Island-grown oats. In 1924, it will be remembered, there was an abnormally small crop of oats harvested in the South Island, necessitating heavy importations of oats from Canada, and tho prices demanded by South Island farmers for that year’s oats were so high that shippers down here were precluded from doing business with merchants in the North Island, as the latter were able to import oats from Canada to so much bettor advantage, and that in spite of a duty imposed on the imported article, amounting to 2s per cental, or 9 3-5 d per bushel, plus 1 per cent, primage, and a higher rate, ot freight from Canada than they would have had to pay from Otago and Canterbury ports. In the following year, 1925, a very much larger crop of oats was harvested and, as some of them know to I their .sorrow, many merchants (paid such high prices to farmers for their oats that a considerable sum of money was lost by many of them because they ■ found that it was impossible to dispose ;of them except at a substantial loss. ' As a matter of fact, some of the merchants and millers are holding those 1925 crops of oats to-day, and they are worth from Is to Is 6d per bushel loss than they paid for them fifteen or sixteen. months ago. This year our harvest again apparently yielded an adequate supply of oats, particularly throughout Otago and Southland, but farmers again got up on their stilts and demanded high | prices for them—in fact, prices on a ■ par with what they had received last ; year—and it is a well known fact that I many merchants were foolish enough I to pay these high prices, with tho reI suit that they arc holding these dearlybought oats to-day, and will bo compelled to face a substantial loss on thorn, as prices, since the opening of this season, have receded to tho extent of Is to Is 3d per bushel. No ono will dispute your contributor’s contention that Southland can produce bounteous crops of oats, of the very choicest quality desirable. But the trouble is that the farmers who produce them are apparently not prepared to accept prices that will permit of South Island shippers catering for our North Island merchants’ requirements in competition with tho substantially cheaper oats that are available from overseas. As I have already remarked, I hold no brief for any shipping company, bnt I will venture to say that, if merchants can find a' market for South Island-grown oats in any of our North Island ports, there will soon bo a steamer forthcoming to carry them there. But before our I South Island merchants can do that | growers of oats in our southern proI ducing centres must he prepared to ! accept a price that will enable these merchants to compete against the cheaper oats offering from overseas, and that is all there is to it. . What is the meaning of these heavy importations of oats from Canada, Chile, and Australia by North Island merchants? It is simply that growers of oats in South America, Canada, and Australia are prepared to bear tho handicap of the increased rates of freight on oats from those countries ns compared with the rates of freight from South Island itorts to our North Island ports, and also that they are prepared to surmount the obstacle of Is 6d per cental in the case of Australia, and 2s per cental in the case of Canada and Chile, plus 1 per cent, primage, and other expenses incidental to shipments from overseas, and land their respective products in North Is- - land porta at lower prices than our South Island producers of oats are prepared to accept. I read a few days ago that a ship-. ' ment of rolled oats from America had been landed in Dunedin recently, and it was noticed that it was consigned to , Southland. What does this mean ? i Well, to interpret the meaning and 1 significance of this shipment into plain, I understandable language, it means this land nothing else; The grower and 1 manufacturer in America, of these rolled oats, are prepared to pay a heavy freight on them to this country, plus a heavy duty, harbor dues, cartage to rail, and railage from Dunedin to Southland—-in fact, put a plate of porridge on 8 Southland farmer s table cheaper than he can procure it 'locally if manufactured from oats | grown by his neighbor over tho fence, I or even by himself. _ And what is the meaning of Canadian 1 oatmeal being landed in New Zealand aA £8 per ton less than our local millers are quoting for tho same product? The answer is: Our local millers are simply the victims of the absurdly high prices that have been ruling for South Island-grown oats. Believe me, i sir, the oat growers of this dominion I have no reason to complain, for they , b ,ve had a good innings for some years past d my knowledge. But, on the c/Aie. '.and, they and tho agents- who ; eh;*;;.) after their oats are to blame for the position we find the oat market in to-day—i.e., plenty of oats available throughout all the centres of the South Island, but practically unsaleable, because the oat growers in this country demanded such

high prices for them that North Island merchants- were compelled to satisfy their requirements from overseas. There is no use in those oat producers and their selling agents, who helped to inflate prices, whining now, as.ft i a too late to remedy matters. My own behet is that the heavy importations from overseas will prove a blessing in disease, as it is evident that they ■ are goin" to have the ctfect of compelling farmers and their selling agents to modify their ideas of value, and accept prices that will permit of South is and merch-a nis supplying North _ merchants with oats at such prices as will enable the latter handle oats that have been produced in this conntry to the exclusion, of those grown overseas. , . , . If the cost of producing this dominion docs not permit of hie producers enabling South Island merchants to compete against offerings from other countries, then wo can only expect to see our North Island merchants continue to draw their requirements from other countries that are prepared to supply them cheaper. _ If the present substantial duty on importations of Australian and Canadian oats plus the higher rates of freight these are subject to are not sufficient protection for the producers of oate in this country, there must bo something radically wrong with the cost of producing oats in this dominion. . I spoke to a leading Fanners’ Union man recently (who is a big producer of oats himself) about the incongruity of import!ng oats into this country from Chile, expecting that ho would denounce, or at least express disapproval of such an ill-advised action on the part of the importers, but to my surprise he said “ Oh, J have no sympathy with the oat growers of this country, and I blame thorn allowing the country to be flooded with imported oats, because it is their own fault, as they could produce plenty of oats for all requirements in this dominion if they liked, but the trouble is they don’t like, because they hate work,” and he continued as .follows “ If they would slay on their farms and work they can easily grow oats to com- , pote agaanst any foreign oats being brought into this country, but most of the farmers nowadays seem too tired, and prefer to spend their time motoring to the nearest football 'match or stock sale, or else “ joy riding in motor, cars with their wives and children, all over the country.” The man who made these remarks is a farmer, and a man who is looked upon as one of the shrewdest and most successful farmers in Otago; and there is no doubt he struck the root of the whole cause when he mentioned motor cats, for these have undoubtedly struck the death knell of the oat-growing industry, and at the same time the big shipping business that was done fir oats with our North Island centres, because in the first place they have been the cause of diminishing the demand for oats in our North Island consuming centres to a relatively meagre quantity as compared with the hundreds of thousands of sacks that used to bo shipped up there some years ago from southern producing centres. And in the second place, they seem to have developed a spirit of indolence or chronic inertia amongst -the producers in the South, as there is one thing very evident, and that is that the farmers to-day, with very few exceptions, appear to possess a constitutional aversion to anything in the nature of hard work. Hence the state of the oat industry as wo view it today—i.e., com pain, lively small crops of oats grown, and these by men who are apparently so happily circumstanced that they cau afford to hold on to them for high prices, and, failing their obtaining those, they are independent enough to be able to hold them in their barns or stacks, while our North Island consuming and distributing centres become inundated with supplies front overseas, which, despite all the handicaps in the form of a high duty, high freights, primage, haxbor dues, cartage, etc., cau be lauded in the merchants’ stores in Auckland and 'other - North Island towns at considerably lower prices than South Island -producers of oats are prepared to accept. One hears a lot of cant and hypocrisy talked these days about the disloyalty of bringing in oats from Chile and Canada. The farmers have been the biggest culprits as regards the importation of motor cars from America — aye, American motor cars that have not only struck the death-knell of the oat-growing industry, but which, I venture to say, are proving the greatest curse that has ever been introduced into this country. For are they not the cause of many millions of pounds sterling being sent out of this country to America, a nation that does her utmost to exclude all New Zealand’s products of the soil? 1 repeat, farmers in this country have been the biggest culprits as regards the importation of these American cars and petrol, and yet immediately a shipment of oate or oatmeal arrives in this country from America, Canada, or Cltilo up go their hands in holy horror, and we hear exclamations imputing disloyalty or Want of patriotism on the part of the importers. When farmers are prepared to work and cease spending so much, time and money on motor oars, and utilise those two essentials in improving their farms in an endeavor to increase production, we shall probably have adequate supplies of oats for the whole of this dominion’s requirements, available at such prices as will preclude the necessity of bringing oats into this country from far-away countries overseas, such as Canada and Chile, and, as I have already remarked, you will find no one more pleased than the shipping companies to provide, steamers to convey supplies to northern ports.— I am, etc., P.H.M. August 3.