FARMING PROBLEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19320, 6 May 1926, Page 12

FARMING PROBLEMS.

COSTING TOO HIGH. DEAR MONEY AND DEAR GOODS. REDUCTIONS NECESSARY. Mr. Frank Colbeck, Morrinsville writes: —I have read the letters on " Farmers and Wages " with gfeat interest and am of opinion that, though some of your correspondents have got near the truth, none of them have really grasped the true position. It would have been better if the heading of the controversy had been not " Farmers and Wages " but " Farmers' Wages." It is not material to the farmer what the other workers' wages are so long as he gets an equivalent amount. This is the crux of the whole question and the Hon. Mr. McLeod was near solving t.hr problem when he said, " the farmer's costing was too high." A farmer's wage is the difference between what it costs to produce and what he gets for his produce when he sells it You can increase a farmer's wages either by raising the price of his produce or by reducing the cost of its production. Mr. McLeod knows that nothing that we can do can materially alter the price we receive, because we have to sell in competition with the rest of the' world, so he approached tho subject from the other end and says in effect that our cost of production is too high. It is this question of reducing the cost of production that is going to solve our difficulties. The cause of all our troubles at present is that farmers' wages have not risen in the same. proportion as other workers wages. I think it will be granted by all yolir readers that practically " wages are the mother of costs," so that we can take wagefe as representing costs to the farmer. I give below a table of wages received by various workers in 1913 and 1922: — 1913 1022 s. d. 8. d. Seamen . ~48 10 SB 1J Timber workers .. 51 0 88 12 Miners .. ..-61101 104 U Waterside workers 59 C] 90 0 Bootmakers .. 52 6 91 8 Carpenters ..61 101 1 You will observe that the increase in wages varied from 64 to 100 per cent., the highest being 100 per cent, and the lowest 64 per -cent. Take in comparison with this what a farmer receives for butter. In 1913 the average monthly payout, by the New Zealand Dairy Association was Is Ogd with a bonus at the end of the year of 2d or a total payout of Is 2£d per lb of butter-fat. In the 1924-25 season the New Zealand Dairy Company paid out roughly Is 6ld per lb butter-fat. This shows an increase over 1913 of roughly 27 per cent. The position is then that* the farmer has only an increase of 27 per cent, to pay for all he requires which has increased from 64 to 100 per cent. It is quite clear that this state of things cannot continue indefinitely. The farmed is gradually but surely drifting, on to the rocks. The small farmer is putting up a pretty good fight to save himself. First of ail he worked longer hours, then first' ono child and then another drifted into the cow yard and now his wife is there too. The cry that, " he paid too much for his land "'is only one item. It costs twice as much to make a farm to-day as it did in 1914 and the cost of running it when it is made is twice as great. How can you expect more production under such conditions ?

As a matter of fact the volume of production is not increasing. It is only the high price of our produce in the British jnarke.t that, is enabling us to pay our way. .'Should'a plump come in the price of our products we should be in a very dangerous position. The only hope for tho farmer is a reduction in the cost of production: he must have cheaper money and cheaper goods, or gradually production .will fall in volume. I think that both the Minister of Lands and the Minister of Agriculture are fully agreed about the disease. I wonder will they administer the only possible remedy. DAIRY PRODUCE MARKETING-. FULL CONTROL URGED. "Country Bred" writes:—Having been engaged in dairy farming for six years. I claim to have a little knowledge of farming conditions generally, especially those affecting the proposals of compulsory marketing through the Control Board and also the most workable system of election of members of the board. The ownership of the factories is tho main cause of" disunion, and not the individual farmer, so I will enumerate the three usual alternative methods adopted to erect a factory Ql) By private enterprise, that is. by a firm or persons without any direct interest in the farmers; (2) by tho farmers in the district concerned negotiating with a proprietary company to build a factory, with an agreement to dispose of all the butter or cheese through, that firm, while holding a mortgage over the factory. A great number of the smaller so-called co-opera-tive factories are financed in this way. (3) Bv a real co-operative factory financed bv the farmers who supply the factory the shares held being on a fixed basis of butter-fat supply. The attitude of the first section to absolute control is obvious, the greater portion of the second are still heavily mortgaged to the proprietary companies, and are naturally influenced by the people who hold the purse. This means that companies in tne third section are the ones that trulv represent the views of the farmers, and the outstanding example is the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy- Company, Ltd., with headquarters at Hamilton. It is acknowledged that ~cur greatest rival on our main outlet, the British market, is Denmark, and though we cuiini that our produce is the equal' of tho Danish we cannot get the same prices, and we wonder why. If the authorities I have read are correct, co-operative associations, financed largely by aafricultuial banks, run the business for the farmers, first bv co-operative factories, then leadiug to*co-operative marketing associations which mean uniform methods of manufacture and regulating the supplies during the whole year, that is, judicious teeding of the market. For vears the New Zealand farmers have had to contend with speculators, who know that onlv by manipulating the markets can big profits, be made, hence every use is made of flooding the marketto force the prices down, then they buy, and holding, feed the market at a higher price. It has been noted that the Danisß prices do not recede anywhere near the same proportion as colonial prices. Tnu consumer, therefore, does not benefit the lower prices, but the speculator, and he "is represented at our conferences by the management of the tied and proprietary factories. As the manufacture of our produce is controlled by proprietary, as well as cooperative companies in opposition to eacn other, control of the whole export output, is necessary to obtain uniformity in manufacture and regulation of the supplies actually offered on the market lartial control of the market was tried by the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, which controls nearly one-third of our export, and the. results have shown I that only full control can succeed., A man can earn a decent living in town working eight hours a day. with Saturday | afternoon and Sunday holiday, and givo his children a reasonable education, without any undue strain on a child's. physical powers. Country life is the best ,and healthiest, but until conditions irn- | proved the drift must continue to the towns.