CORRESPONDENCE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 11 June 1912, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE

LAND VALUES

Sir, —Seeing in your Hawera Star an advertisement asking all and sundry interested in farming to attend the Hawera Farmers' Union on Saturday to have a friendly discussion over the present high land values in Taranaki, I willingly, along with- a neighbor, drove 36 miles to see if I could learn something or see things to avoid in the way of making a dairy farm pay on the Waimate Plains at an annual rent of from £4 to £7 iOs per acre. I must say — and I am sure 1 am also giving the idea of the majority at the meeting—that we were sadly disappointed. Mr Powdrell gave, us the start of the dairying industry, which every schoolboy in New Zealand knows all about, and everyone is aware that the credit of the dairying industry at the present day belongs to the farmer himself, and the help science has given, and this science and modern methods of dairying have come from men outside of New Zealand ; not a single individual in our present Government or service, or outside Government, have we to thank for the present thriving condition of the dairying industry.

*Mr Powdrell then got on to his pet farm of 121 acres at Manaia, and gave us to understand that the gentlenian he sold this farm to had been working before going on the farm for 10s per day, and he had to support his wife and family on this 10s per day. This man had £200 cash, and £100.of this went to the land agent. Mr Powdrell gave him cows, land, implements, etc., to give him a start, and took £100 on account. The first year, after paying the usual interest, this family cleared £350, and, of course, their living expenses. Mr Poudrell received this amount of £350 towards paying off the debt of cows, land, etc. In giving us the value of this farm, and all his calculations were based on the same lines, Mr Powdrcll added on this £350 as being the amount more that the farm was worth than what this hard-working man and his family were paying for it. Now, here was my contention against Mr Powdrell's argument (and I must say Mr Powdrell did not say I made a mistake): This man was not only working himse'f, but the whole family, and the mother the hardest, from four in the morning till sundown and after, and Mr Powdrell only allows them a bare living. The profits of their hard work Mr Powdrell grabs to pay off a risky mortgage on cows, land, etc., Should misfortune in cows or a drop in land values occur, which is always likely to happen, where would this hardworking and industrious family's earnings go to? Of course, Mr Powdrell would have those little children's hardwon earnings and_ his broad acres also. If this sort of white slavery is to bring laud in Taranaki to £100' per acre, I wish Mr Powdrell all the benefits.

Now, I will give the case of this family or any family milking on shares on this farm to Mr Powdrell: I will take the return Mr Powdrell gave me off his farm five years ago, £1,200. The shars-milkers, or'family's share of this, would be about £500, counting half for pigs and calves, with milk, and n small piece of ground for potatoes and vegetables. I say a family with only a fair amount of thrift can at least put in the savings bank £300 a year, and this £300 can be divided up and those of the family who are assisting can have their own banking account, and can put their hands on a lew pounds when wanted, and no risk to run until they are of age. Whereas, Mr Powdrell, with his way of it, takes those children's bard-earned savings and adds on to the price of bis land to get us believe it is worth £80 to £100 pei- acre. . I will give yon what I consider a fair c.-Mnv.'ercial value of the best lanrls on the Waimate Plains, and I cannot do more than give \ou my own experience on the 177 acres we are dairying on here. Everyone who kiiows the farm will say it is above the average of beach land between Hawera and Otakeho, and has all con>-enierices. The land, with rates, cost me £40 per ac?-e, and during the five years we have dairied on it we have bad a living and savpd over £300 per annum. Now, I consider this £300 odd belongs to myself and family, and has r.o right to be added on to the value of the farm, because if this amount we have saved is added on, then myself and family are only working for n bfve living. ,Ts this the way Mr Pov<-l'-ell is to raise the price of his land?

In conclusion. I consider the commercial valne of our best lands at Is ncr Ib. butter, with a livp and let live policy, is £40 per acre. There is no getting nway from the fact that the high orices for cheese have been the cause of the rise in value of our best lands above £40 ncr acre, and I give the advice I pot from a friend of Mr Powdrell's— that every man ought to be his own jucli-e of what land is worth, and not bp ffnided by cas+les in the air. Then if Mr Powdrell is to drive every penny out of those milking families to boom tradesmen in the towns and what is ihp short life we have to live worth, "nle^s we try and give all a chance to live?

JAMES SMITH, The Meadows, Otakeho, June 10, 1912. •