MATTER OF VITAL INTEREST

Northern Advocate, 5 February 1936, Page 8

MATTER OF VITAL INTEREST

GOVERNMENT’S PRICE LEVEL PLAN

[Special to "Northern Advocate."] TE KUITI, This Day.

The importance of the farming industry in New Zealand from the point Of view of the amount of capital and labour utilised and the urgent necessity of finding some means of protecting the primary producers from 'the vagaries of an overseas market make the Government’s proposal for the adoption of a guaranteed price a matter of vital interest.

Details of this scheme were explained by the Minister of Lands, the Hon. Frank Langstone, to a representative of the “Advocate” at Te Kuiti yesterday.

“Of the 80,000 odd farmers on the land,” said Mr Langstone, “at least 50 per cent, would, he insolvent if the law of bankruptcy were applied.

“Records of production and increases in flocks and herds give ample evidence of the industry of the farmers. The major question, therefore, in connection with land settlement is to keep on the land those who are already there, and I have great hope that the guaranteed price will do this—in fact, the price level is the governing factor.

Two Courses.

“There are two courses the Government can follow,” Mr Langstone continued. “It can let things take their course and by a • long-drawn-out process of deflation reduce all equities and securities to the irreducible minimum, which means widespread bankruptcy to tens of thousands of our people, the wholesale unemployment' of the working population, with corresponding curtailment of social services.

“Or it can adjust the internal price level for farm production to a point where securities and equities are retrieved to the point of such price level, thus avoiding all the evils engendered by the first method.

“There is no middle course. The first way is a blun’dering, stupiti way, leading to destruction; the second is the sane, logical way of doing the job.

“It immediately revitalises frozen assets, establishes a permanent foundation for all present and future values, and sets in motion credit and money, which are the commercial blood of trade, industry and commerce.”

Value of Land. Mr Langstone added that it was the price received for the produce that came from the land that fixed the price of land and no permanent basis for the valuation of land could be ascertained until the price of production had been fixed.

The land problem, he continued, was of vital interest to the Crown . It had over 54,000 settlers to deal with, £30,958,000 invested in the land, buildings, etc., £1,712,000 in drainage, and capital invested in mortgages, gtving a total of £46,144,000, Owing principally to the depression arrears of rent, instalments and interest amounted to £1,578,604, and <*in addition charges postponed amounted to £358,176, a total of £1,936,780, most of which would have to be written off.

The problem of the settlement of further land was also referred to by the Minister, who mentioned that he daily received dozens of letters from citizens pleading to be allotted a section of land.

Major Problem.

He explained the difficulty of securing Crown land of a nature suitable for closer settlement, since much of the land was useless for settlement purposes owing to the denudation of the bush.

It was possible, he said, to settle a few persons on the land at present on such terms that they would be fairly successful at present-day prices, but that did not touch the major problem of keeping the farmer on the land when he was the victim of circumstances of which he had no control. He considered that such a one was justified ii/looking to the State to rescue him from his invidious position, and this the State for its own protection would be compelled to do.

All Should Produce.

“Of this I am convinced,” Mr Langstone concluded, “that farming is one thing and land settlement is another. The farmer’s job is to farm, and experience proves that land development cat} be carried out more efficaciously by collective action 'than by individual effort.

“To me it seems ordinary common sense that when a farmer takes over a piece of land every acre should be productive. In the past settlers have had to go on to areas lacking access and ordinary facilities, work there for a lifetime, get into debt to provide an asset for someone else, and for long years pay rent and rates on something they do not possess. I trust that this will be avoided in the future.”