FARMERS' FINANCE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 3 September 1926, Page 4

FARMERS' FINANCE.

(To the Editor.)

■r Sir, — That the .lengths to which bank- - lug 1 propagandists will go to are not. abounded by ah patriotic considerations •may be shown by Sir Harold Beauchamp’s 'speeches in. .Vancouver and Montreal. In the course of his.remarks lie. is reported/ to have given vent to the following:— / ‘‘Owing to inflated values of land based on the peak prices ruling for our produce a large number of farmers in .New' Zealandf afe in difficulties and are clamouring for more assistance from the Government. That, has been to a large extent" averted through the Government Advances to Settlers Department, which during the year ended March Uiv 1920, lent to the farmers no less than £G,000,000. At their instigation,, the Government a few months ago sent abroad a commission consisting of - a leading banker and farmers ’ president to enquire into the various systems of rural credit and land banks, with a view to ascertaining which would, be suitable to. afford the neeessary>assistanee to needy farmers whose position does not warrant them obtaining assistance through' the ordinary channels —the Advances to Settlers Department, the Banks and Financial •Houses.” May iJ. through your columns, protest against this bundle of inaccuracies? Sir Harold Beauchamp must know that his stat&ments are, untrue and he must ( have - reasons for making misleading statements unworthy of any publicist. He know? that other reasons than high price of land are handicapping farmers, that the commission was not. sent, at the instigation of farmers—who considered 'that a, century and a half of ’ agricultural banking, throughout the world, with consequent data, sufficient —he knows that there was no thought whatever of financing the “hopeless,” but that a. greater volume of finance was desired! and. hfe knows also, none better, that the State Advances did not “advance no less than six millions in the year elided March .31, 1926” on rural securities. . The actual amount advanced was less' than two millions (£1,917.^484).*'a very creditable performance in but. a, mere trifle to the need. Is it that Sir .Harold Beauchamp < wishes to obtain for his own bank a dominating influence in this branch of finance also? 5) I aim, etc., A. E. BOBINSOX, Organising Secretary ' (F.U. Auckland Province). Auckland, August 31.