THE FARMERS' YEAR

Nelson Evening Mail, 28 July 1916, Page 7

THE FARMERS' YEAR

J REVIEW BY SIR JAMES WILSON". FINANCIAL POSITION DISCCSSED TAXATION PROPOSALS CRITIC I.SEP. "Ic is enjoined that the presidenl shall give a review of the year at oin annual gatherings, and the year that i> past has been a phenomenal rate." sai.' Sir dames Wi'snu. in his annual addrost before the Dominion Conference of ih< Eauncvs' Cin'ou recently. ''Hon could if be otherwise?" lie continued. "Wt are spending our capita! at I lie rnie oi about a million a montli .and yet have withdrawn 50.000 men from the adult population. Those l.'i't in occupation are therefore receiving more for their labour in whatever occupation thvv may !)<• engaged, (heat Britain is spending five million?, a day. which is circulating amount the people, yet everything v,vpurchase costs more. 'Wool, which was just sufficient f>r the wants of the world, is ivpiircd everywhere, for tho-e w-)io ai'e fighting. Tlie meat we produce goes now- to feed the men at the front, 'and only tlie surplus goes into the oid'o arv channels. The consumption < f cheese in the Army has increased the demand enormously and Is per pound has been reached as a selling price since the freezing profess en aided u.--, to sell our produce in Britain. With such nriees for our food and clothing products, a 1! have to more to feed and cloth.' their families . The increase of non-interest-beaf-jnar deposits with the banks show that their clients are hoklintr reserves, but it is gratifying to note that the. worker is saving some of Ills increased returns, for war the Post- Office Savings Banks show a net increase in tlie funds of over three millions since the "war' began . Of this two millions is the increase during the past year. As our lulls have reached such an enormous total we must expect further taxation to be a certainty. How- is this to be raised 1 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. The Chairman of the Bank of New Zealand had given a very carefully prepared review of the financial situation of tho -world : thotmli probably they did not agree with some of his conclusions. "The Budget bristles with figures," said Sir James, "so I will take round figures which brine; out the points of interest,. First of all. our exports have exceeded those of last- year on paper by six millions. For the two years, ending 31 t March, the exports were : • 1915-16 33.108.0*9 1914-15 27.153 ; 847 £5.954,122 The difference, however, was very much exaggerated by the fact that in both cases these amounts "were estimates. He was sure that in 1934-15 the prices realised were much hiefier than the estimates sown in the above figures. Exports must alwavs be estimates, for the rea=on that there was no means of ascertaining what the actual values were, liirnorts. however, w-ere exact. He should not be surrtrised if the difference in actual value of our exports for the two years in ouestion was in reality no more than £3.000.000. Whether v_e have been over sanguine in our esti mates this year remained to be seen , but it should be noted that much of this last year's exports had yet to be paid for. NEW ZEALAND'S PR'ODUCTIViTV. Of the 33.155.992 of exports. the produce from the land in {lie year ended 31 ?t March. 1916. amounted to £30.635,7iq—a truly stupendous amount for a million people to take from the land. B-sides which, the people had been fed and to some extent clothed out of it. Practicallv the whole of this had beon taken from the land hy sheep, cattle, and pigs—with the assistance of_ horses in the agricultural portions. "We mav safely say, I think, "that not more than four "millions at the outside .is the result of war," said Sir James: "Values have risen above the previous year, but this has to be discounted by the fact that it has cost a great deal more to raise and market, the'produce; but we have been decreasing our imports in comparison to our spending power, although the highor values brine the total of last year to a little more than that of 1914-15. so that we have a margin of twelve millions of excess of exports in comparison with imports. This is shown in the banking j returns. There is an increase of over I four millions in nou-interest-bearing deI posits. There are politicians who say I the Government should take from the farmer tlie extra six millions of in- ' creased value of exports which he has not rrot. and the nineteen millions -of free deposits to pa-v war expenses. The vear's balance-sheet in the Budget begins with a credit balance of £149.000. and ends with a surplus of £2.160,000. So Sir Joseph was very near the mark when ho said the new taxation of last session would bring in £2.000,000. Who then paid this extra taxation?"