LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 821, 26 January 1867, Page 2

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the opinions expressed by correspondents, Sib, — Farming won't pay ! Everybody says so, and of course what everybody says must be right. I was sceptical on this subject, but alas ! I am rapidly becoming a convert. I said, if farming won't pay, how is it some people keep on farming ? Why should it pay in Australia, especially in South Australia, and not in New Zealand ? I thought that those who said " farming won't pay," meant to imply that other things paid as well or better with less trouble to themselves. Sheep and cattle, for instance, especially when these could be run on Crown land or Native land with little or no rent to pay. But the good times of cheap land are gone. Now, if farming won't pay, I should like very much to get at the secret why it won't pay. Considering the price we have to give for all kinds of farm and garden products, there must be something wrong in the state of Denmark if it pays better to bring all these things here by sea rather than raise them for ourselves. I propose that our Agricultural Society (poor fellows) send a commission up to Auckland or down to Canterbury to find out how, for instance, the Aucklanders or Canterburians manage to send us oats and live by the loss which theoretically they must or ought to make on each consignment. Possibly they don't get droughts, or smut, or caterpillars, or cabbage blight, or grasshoppers, or wire worms, or docks, or, last but not least, thistles; or, possibly, they know how to keep down some or all of these pests. I am inclined to think that in this province farming scarcely has fair play. Here it is all wool and mutton. If a district is set aside for farming purposes, still the farmer has to compete against the mutton growers, or, rather, tallow manufacturers, for the beauty of the sheep seems to be to make it waddle about with as much wool outside its skin, and tallow inside as possible ; the edible part of the beast being a matter of secondary consideration. Then, again, the farmer has a difficulty to contend against in the matter of labour. Beef and mutton making does not require a very great amount of labour, but for farming there must be plenty of hands. Now in this country we go to work in a peculiar fashion. We do all we can to discourage farming, and employ as few hands as possible to look after our scattered flocks and herds ; but then, as a certain amount of population is required in order to keep our dark friends in their proper places, we devote this surplus population to that especial purpose under the names of Defence force, military settlers &c, e\ most excellent adaptation of the principle of division of labour, is it not ? Another evil the poor farmer has to contend against is the tyranny he has to endure from the gentlemen who condescend to assist him in his operations. I never saw Mr. Cracrofb Wilson's much abused 'Master's and Servant's Act,' but I really don't see why an unfortunate victim who has invested his money in farming should be placed quite at the mercy of those who, by an amusing fiction, (or a bitter sarcasm) are called his servants. If one of these gentry feels it necessary to get drunk, or leave you for a few days in the middle of harvest, why you must grin and bear it as best you may ; but just look out that you don't infringe the rights of the " working man." It was laid down the other day by one of our local judicial authorities, that a man serving you under a weekly engagement may leave in the middle of the week, and in the middle of harvest, unless you have a distinct agreement that he is to give such and such a notice. I fancy the law might nob allow the master to send away the man under the circumstances, but perhaps some public spirited farmer will try the experiment. Far be it from me to hint that in this free country the " working man " ought to be deprived of his right as a freeborn Briton to get drunk at all reasonable times, but if this privilege is exercised too freely in the harvest season, why, then, farming won't pay, as I observed before, and we must import our grain from some benighted place where the privileges of the working man are not held quite so sacred. I am &c, A Tiller op tjhb Soil. Thistledale, January 22nd.