THE.PRIMARY PRODUCERS:

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 30 March 1931, Page 7

THE.PRIMARY PRODUCERS:

DOMINION’S SHEET=ANCHOR

(Contributed)

. le Primary producers of New Zealand occupy 43,500,000 acres of land, and the cultivation or supervision of this large area provides work for 127,316 Europeans and Maoris. Agricultural holdings total 8.497. with 13,373 employees; (here are 37.505 dairy farms employing 60 ; 800 men and women ; while the 39,626 pastoral holdings give work to 49,625 employees Maori agricultural holdings total 78. with 118 employees; dairy farms 1,154, employing 2.348 hands; and the 1.379 pastoral runs have 1,082 people on the pay-sheet. In 1928 the exports of the Dominion reached the record price of £56,188,481, and the products of the combined holdings mentioned above accounted for 94.2 per cent, of that huge sum. In 1929 there was a drop of £600,000 in value of exports, and last vear the decrease was £10,638,381 less than those for the previous year.

Wool values fell from £15,359,206 to £7.664,362. the decrease in the number of bales being 107,417. Further declines were recorded in bacon and hams, £11,715; and calf skins. £54,855. Though the quantities of the following products were considerably increased the decreases in value were as follows: Butter £1,373,861-; cheese. £579,025; cattle bides £112,387; sheepskins, £295,355 ; tallow, £10,043. Beef values increased by £52,081, lamb by £414,810; mutton bv £575,081, and sausage casings by £127,040.

These figures are sufficiently convincing to warrant the \aim that the prosperity of the Dominion largely rests upon the maintenance or stimulation of (he productive capacity of the occupied lands, plus prices that would leave for the producer an adequate return for his labour.

A practical illustration of what can he achieved by the dairy farmers was given in a recent appeal to them to help in this serious crisis. There are 50,000 of them in the Dominion, and it was urged that if each one produced but one bacon pig more than usual the combined value (£2 10s each) would aggregate £125,000. Ten such pigs per farmer represent £1,250,000 added value. It was further shown that the addition of Is per acre in the value of the 43,500,000 acres occupied by the use of fertilisers or by other means, would add £2,175,000 to the rateable value; and an increase of 5s per acre is said to be not difficult to attain. It seems, therefore, that the measure and promptness of their response to the appeal will determine the extent of the Dominion’s recovery from the effects of the Iri.de find industrial slump. The producers have every inducement to be optimistic, because their staple products are advancing in price. Wool prices have in'-some instances reached a point beyond cost of production, butler and cheese, though variable in price, are higher than was the case a month ago, and Addington and Burnside prices for beef and mutton are distinctly encouraging. It is no exaggeration to assert that the people of the Dominion are looking to the primary producers to begin the campaign for revitalising their industry, and there is reason to hope they will ni'Amnflv vncnnnrl