"NOT PLEASANT READING FOR FARMERS."

Horowhenua Chronicle, 2 December 1938, Page 8

"NOT PLEASANT READING FOR FARMERS."

INCREASED RAIL CHARGES | I (By Telegraph—Press Association), i WELLINGTON, Last Night. The. increase in railway freights would mean a further increase in the already heavy load of costs the farming industries were being asked to bear and a further cut in farmers' incomes, said Mr. A. P. O'Shea, Dominion secretary of the New Zealand Farmers' Onion, in an interview this evening. "It means," said Mr. O'Shea, "that the cost of superphosphate, for instance, will be increased as will tht> cost of other essential materials required by the farmer in his business. It also means extra railage costs will be deducted from the farmer's returns for his wool, his fat 3toek and his other produce, as the increase applies also to the road service freights.

"It simply means a general allround increase in farm costs. This will not help us to attain the increased production which the Government is asking of all sections of the community, and so far as the sheepfarmer is concerned the increases come at a very bad time. The Government should be lightening his costs and not increasing them. "Transport is a fairly big item and an important one for farmers, and the news of the increases will not make very pleasant reading for them in view of the prospects of falling prices for their produce." [The announcement of the new rates will be found on page 13.]