WHAT OUR FARMERS MOST WANT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11987, 9 June 1902, Page 7

WHAT OUR FARMERS MOST WANT.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— wish it were possible to persuade | the farmer that the price paid for the trail- | sit of goods is notalways speaking within i certain bounds—the all-important thing to j him that he appears to think it is. : When the farmer gets his account sales i and finds that for railage through a reduction in rates, lie is charged £4 instead of £5. | as formerly, naturally enough he thinks ho I has made £1, and so he probably lias, and will for the first shipment or two, but prices soon adjust themselves and it is the consumer and not the producer that receives the permanent advantage. The cheaper agricultural and pastoral products can be sent to the great eitie3 the cheaper they will be sold. If one trader is not content to take a certain margin of profit another will, and thus the consumer in the end gets all the permanent advantage. Under tho present transit system the farmers pay a very large amount of taxation, the benefit of which nearly all, if not quite all, the city trader and consumer. So far from our railways paying and producing revenue for the State, as they might and ought to do, they entail a very heavy burden on the taxpayers. During the last five years we have been treated to a vast amount of boasting about our "successful" railway administration. This is what it amounts to. During this period the increased tonnage of goods and passengers carried on our lines was only 1,386,060 tons for the whole five years, while the increase in working expenses was no less than £1,321,240, or within a fraction of £1 per ton, while the charge to the public was only about 7s per ton. 'Who paid the difference? My object in drawing attention at this time to the serious loss made on our railways, is to show the farmers that the small " concessions" pretended to be made to them do not do them any real good, while they largely increase the general taxation, of which they pay their full share. What the farmers really want is such a system of railway transit as will bring a market near to their own doorsin other words, such a system as will largely increase the proportion of population residing and carrying on their various trades and callings in country towns. At present, in this province especially, wo have practically no country towns. Take tho extensive Waikato district as an example, or go further and take a range of 130 miles round Auckland, and the largest country town we have is Hamilton, which at the census of 1901 had a population of only 125J people. Under a, proper system Hamilton would long since have been a considerable manufacturing and distributing centre, with a population'of at least from 6000 to 8000. Helensville, To Awamutu, Rotorua, Cambridge, Morrinsville, and Ngaruawahia ought, and would also have bean prosperous and considerable towns. Had this been the case how different would have been the position of our farmers. They would not have been as now solely dependent on Auckland or the export trade for a market, but would have had numerous local markets, and consequently have saved largely in transit charges, and also have obtained the higher prices local markets always give. As it is our farmers are working almost exclusively for the export trade; but they should remember that this brings them into competition with the cheapest producers in America, the Argentine, Siberia, Denmark, etc., while the local trade is all their own; therefore their effort should be to increase the number of local markets, and let them remember that this can never be done under the present system, which always means concentration, instead of distribution. , Concentration of people in the great cities means concentration of wealth in a few hands, and concentration of industrial operations in a few small areas. It is out of this state of things, and almost wholly through manipulation of the railways of the world that the millionaires have arisen, with their trusts, combines, and other means of doing untold evil. Let our farmers look to it, and see that our transit system is altered before the same state of things is produced here. It is growing faster than most people think. Why does the Government so persistently refuse to allow the new system to be tried? It certainly is not following the wish of the public in doing this. There must be some very strong motive for persisting in working a system that brings so much Jess to the community.-*! am, etc. Samuel Vaile. Auckland, June 5 1902.