TOWN AND COUNTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20263, 24 May 1929, Page 14

TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Sir. —As there is so much appearing in tho papers about farming affairs, settling people on the land, unemployment distress, etc., a little contribution from an ordinary farmer may not be out of place. I consider the Government is to blame for a- lot of the distress in the cities by paradoxically enough advancing town people too much money, i.e., an ordinary worker in the city is encouraged to buy a section and borrow about- £IOOO to buikl a house. Ho erects a flash house, furnishes on time payment, and .before he knows where he is, is up against it. The position would have been entirely different, had his advance been limited to £SOO. He would then have built a £SOO house with correspondingly lower payments and have had a reasonable chance to make good. The salvation of the city is not going to come from the Government, it lies with the citizens themselves. Unfortunately tho country has got a little far off the same brush. The country people, too, are howling for more money, and still more money, and when they get it many of them blossom out in a nice motor-car or something equally as foolish. " Eh, why shouldn't they have a car? Yes why, indeed?" Certainly they should have a car when their income warrants it..but not on borrowed capital. Let the Government look into the cost of milking machines, separators, drills, etc., test them at the State farms and give a certificate on their capabilities, etc. T know at least three small farmers in this district who have installed machines, to milk herds of less than 30 cows, at. a cost of approximately £2OO each. The pill is gilded by spreading payments over two or three years, and to make matters worse, along comes an inspector and condemns the shed under some new regulation about air spaces that no one had ever heard of. Let the Government Overhaul the mass of harassing regulations now oppressing farmers, decimate the horde of officials swanking about, do something to bring down the cost of implements, etc., give them good roads to lower carting costs and they will find that the farmer will work out his own salvation and there will not be much need to urge men to take up land. West Coast.