Greymouth Evening Star. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1947. Food Production Decline

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 February 1947, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1947. Food Production Decline

HpHE Minister of Agriculture, Sir. Cullen, ’ has found it possible to endorse the desire of Sir. SV. N. Perry, vice-president of Federated Farmers, expressed in a public statement, to see New Zealand’s food production increased. But in doing so he has contributed nothing to the solution of the problem of declining output. Apparently it has not occurred to him that since it is the Government which creates the conditions under which the farming industry must operate, it is the duty of the Government to find the answer. If it does not provide a satisfactory solution, then its policy of “improving the standard of living” of the people can have little prospect of success, for it is on the land that that standard is based.

The Minister, in referring to Mr Perry’s statement, points out that New Zealand has not, except for a few years, been selfsufficient in cereals since the First World War. He holds that the “position really is that because of our climate and soils livestock farming is more congenial and profitable than cereal production.” But it has been apparent for a long time that the Government is not concerned to increase wheat production, even as an emergency measure. The Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan, admitted as much last year when he said that the Government was concerned “only to see that the people of New Zealand had adequate wheat, which he had arranged on his recent visit to Australia, and that growers received a just price.” In other words, Mr. Sullivan was prepared for increased imports of wheat, at a time when supplies are desperately needed in famine-stricken areas of the world. The Government’s policy in regard to wheat has been a negative one> “No crop,” says Mr. Perry, “has received less encouragement in the Dominion than wheat. The reason is that Hie wheat price has been fixed at a relatively low figure, and, moreover, it has been fixed with an eye on. good, normal wheat-grow-ing land. Tt has not been appreciated by those in authority that to increase a crop of wheat considerably it must be grown on areas outside the normal wheat-grow-ing ones, and in districts where the a ield is smaller and the risk of crop failure is greater.” Tt is indeed difficult to understand the Government’s decision in this respect in paying the New Zealand farmer only 7/1 per bushel (increased this year by 3d) while it imported wheat at a price 50 per cent higher. Mr. Sullivan has. of course, given several “explanations” of this decision, but there is little doubt that few people are any the wiser. Widespread Effects.

The decline in cereal production —the area sown for this year’s harvest was only about half the target set—threatens to have disastrous affects on other industries which depend on an adequate supply of grain. Bacon and e"g production, for instance, have receded to record low levels, as consumers find to their dismay, especially in the city areas. Actually Mr. Perry’s appeal for a greater national effort in providing food for a hungry world underlines an artificial and dangerous division in New Zealand’s economic standard. The first requijement, as he has emphasised, lies in increased supplies of fertiliser and lime. By strict adherence to the 40-hour fiveday week no work is now done at the fertiliser works on Saturdays, which, in turn, increases “the difficulties of transport, since Saturday and Sunday are the two best days for the railways to handle fertiliser shortage.” Similarly, as has been pointed out in an authoritative survey of the present position, when produce leaves the farm, it encounters the same “take it easy” attitude in various branches of processing. Dairy factory workers show an antipathy toward shift work and seek increased overtime pay for week-end labour. Freezing works operate at capacity for only a fraction of the full week. "Wharf labour retards the speedy turn-round of the limited shipping available to carry out meat and dairy products to the eager markets of the world. Everything, in fact, is being geared down to a partial labour effort which can be persuaded to extra exertion only by heavy additions to production costs in the form of penal overtime rates. At the same time, the farmer feels that he has a grievance in that conditions for the remainder of the community are improved largely at his expense. There is no 40-hour fiveday week on a farm and never can be. What is required is a new approach to the country’s basic’industry. The encouragement of shift work in industries ancillary to farming and a judicious staggering of the 40-hour week, together with a more sympathetic attitude towards the farmer and his major problem of mounting costs without commensurate price increases, and also his labour difficulties, would constitute an important step towards arresting the decline in food production and securing the standard of living on a firm and lasting basis.