PRIMARY PRODUCTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18879, 29 November 1924, Page 10

PRIMARY PRODUCTION.

The policy of the Country Party, as expounded by the leaders of the movement, is to decry the country and to disparage the industry of the primary producers. Mr. A. A. Ross, one of the party's spokesmen, has cast himself for the role of prophet of woe, and declares that production has ceased to expand. Such a conclusion must be based on extremely limited, if not prejudiced, observation. The expansion might be faster, but all the available evidence disproves stagnation. The last five years have boon acutely disturbed ; nevertheless the primary industries have made some advance. There are 13,000 more persons, nearly 10 pc cent., engaged in farming; that increase has developed in spite of the expanding use of labour-saving appliances, indicated by the increase from 60,000 h.p. to 73,000 h.p. in various forms of motive power installed on farms in the last three years. 'Simultaneously, there has been a steadily progressive increase in the number of holdings, while flocks and herds have also increased. The cumulative results are .apparent in the Dominion's trade, for both in value and in volume, exports are increasing. It is unnecessary to catalogue all the evidence; it is available in official publications for all who care to examine it. They are certainly more reliable than the reckless conclusions upon which Mr. Ross bases his lamentations. His prejudice is illustrated by his remarkable discounting of the growth

of dairying on the ground that it has replaced beef, production. Even if that were true, it is simply be6ause dairying is more profitable. Actually, the export value of frozen meat has never been much above two millions; that was in 1916, when butter and cheese exports amounted to six millions. Last year, the quantity of beef exported was less by one-fourth than in 1916, while butter and cheese had more than doubled, and their total value increased almost threefold. To-day it is announced that the entry for the firs* wool sale in Auckland is 18,000 ba&fe, as against 12,000 bales last yea.~, while values are higher by about the same proportion. Mr. Boss and his friends will shake their heads and declare such things cannot last. They certainly will not if the farmers of New Zealand joii\ with the Country Party in bewailing fancied misfortunes, but being for the most part shrewd and enterprising, they are not likely to be misled by such pessimism when present experience and prospects are so encouraging.