THE FARMER’S DIFFICULTIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 June 1924, Page 9

THE FARMER’S DIFFICULTIES.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I read in your paper Mr Massey’s idea of the lifting of the moratorium. "Well, as a layman it looks about as unworkable a scheme as could be thought of, but I should think from, a lawyers’ viewpoint a very good one. Now, if a poor farmer wants to extend the period of a loan he will have to go before the Supreme Court, and lawyer’s expenses would eat into quite a lot of money and add so much on to the interest for the extra two years, and be might qasily be worse off than if be chanced it. Then there is the element of uncertainty as to how the judge might ’view it. A judge might be a very fine lawyer, but know nothing about a farm, and we have an object lesson in the wool of how little people knew of what was going to happen in the future. How many would have been on their farms now had they only had a little time to tide over things, and it is no good for Mr Massey to say how good things are. Ask any tradesman in Hawera and Manaia how things are or the stock companies, and 1 think they will say that never before have they found money so hard to get. In 40 years’ farming I have never seen cull cows so cheap. That includes any store cow-s or bullocks. Dairy cows are very hard to sell, and A'ery feAV herds go more than £5 to £7, and there is an utter want of confidence. Mr Massey says that people can borroAV on farm land. Let him have a try and sec how he Avould get on. If it Avas for some improA’emeut in toAvn you could get it, but it is A’ery hard to get money on land, except at a much larger margin than before the war. Noav the old gag was trotted out, “more production.” It is very easy to say, but Aery hard to do. It is very safe betting that next year Avill shoiv a- fairly big reduction of dairy produce. Very little improvement is taking place, as in many cases people do not knoiv if they Avi 11 haA r e a chance to hang on. It is all very well to say people Avill reduce their mortgages. Mighty I'cav Avill unless forced, but there are a good many peope Avho with a little extra time and with hard Avork will get through, us their replacement costs are so small. Milking is going hack, Avhich is a very bad sign, as dairying employs a lot of hands, and if it was not for the large amount of non-productive work going on labour would be having a A'ery bad time. By non-productive labour I mean it is not directly improving our position from an exporting view. That is what Ave Avanl.— I am, etc., FARMER.