A REMEDY NEEDED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 245, 31 January 1921, Page 4

A REMEDY NEEDED.

In calling upon the fanners to increase- production the Government is theoretically doing a very wise thing; but, "except in what may he termed “small la ruling’ —that is fanning carried on principally by the farmer himself and independently of outside labour—its practicability may well bo questioned. LRt

tho handicaps upon farming and it is likely to progress more satisfactorily: make production more profitable and the farmer will produce nv greater quantity, the country will benefit by the increased production, and the exports will increase in volume, but, while the producer is handicapped to the extent that he is. by the excessive demands of the Taxing Master and ol Labour he has little or no incentive to launch out and extend Ins operations. Nor is he likely to do so to any considerable extent if he has to depend upon borrowed money to carry him through. It is one thing therefore m thoro days to urge increased production, hut quite another to expect that such increased production will bo lortheomiug, except in such lines as dairying products whore extensions are possible through individualistic enterprise and work. Agriculture and the primary producing industry generally, can bo made to pay handsomely, provided tno handicaps to which high prices have given rise, are removed, \\ero tno high prices likely to continue the extra labour costs, the dearer materials used, and the heavier taxation levied, as. compared with the pre-war years, would not matter so greatly, but both the Government and the people,, the workers especially, have to recognise that prices have fallen and are likely to fall still further, and that there is a very real danger of , some branches of farming becoming unprofitable, and or production seriously diminishing,on account of the handicaps under winch the industry suffers. The toll Labour takes nowadays on farming is heavy; it sensibly increases tho price ol such commodities as milk, butter, cheese and bacon sold on the New Zealand, markets, because the farmer finds his expenses mounting up. And, while the export demand continues and the high rates that have prevailed are obtainable overseas the high prices will be maintained. But, when export values decline, prices locally will tall in sympathy, and tho farmer will find it more and more difficult to meet tho demands of such labour as he employs, which is never more than is actually necessary. Loss of employment will follow, and with his diminished income the farmer will pay less by way of income tax and possibly find himself less able to meet the taxation levied on the value of lus land. The remedy is to be found in reduced taxation, reduced freights and more reasonable labour charges. It is not an easy matter to see how either of the three can be brought about, but they are very necessary and almost essential to that increased, production to which the farmers of this Dominion are being urged to apply themselves. So far as taxation is concerned, relict can only be obtained from it by reduced expenditure. The Government has, however, to find between sixteen and seventeen millions more per annum than it did in pre-war times, and, unfortunately the hulk of that money we might almost say the whole of it—can only he obtained from taxation. That is the big hurdle that has to be surmounted. That hurdle has been made more formidable by the decision of Parliament in 1919 that, to meet tho increased cost of living, wages, etc., must he, as far as possible, brought up to the pre-war standard of value, as the cost of living bonuses awarded to Stale employees involve an added charge of three or four millions per annum—probably more—to tho wages bill the Government has to,meet. T lie 3s bonus alone entails (if it is granted by the Government) an increase of half a million in the wages that will have to bo paid to the railway employees.