SHEEPOWNERS' PLIGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20962, 27 August 1931, Page 13

SHEEPOWNERS' PLIGHT.

DANGERS OF DEFAULT. URGENT NEED OF RELIEF. PLEA BY MR. H. D. ACLAND. [nx TELEGRAPH. OWN CORRESPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The present serious economic position of the sheepfarming industry was analysed to-day by Mr. H. D. Acland in his presidential address at the annual meeting of the New - Zealand Sheepowners' and Farmers' Federation. "Last year we had reason for grave concern over the large drop in the money value of our wool, meat, pelts, etc.," said Mr. Acland. "Our worst fears have beert realised, as 1 believe that no other branch of primary production has been affected by the present depression to the same extent as the sheepowning industry. Since last year the deflation of prices has continued until to-day we find that the ratio of production costs to money received for our products has reached an impossible stage." Mr. Acland proceeded to deal with the two major problems of internal costs of production and overseas prices for produce. Unless some relief was given, he said, there was grave danger of many high-country runholders in the South Island throwing up" their country, as the mustering costs alone in some cases required nearly 50 per cent, of the gross wool clip to meet them. The Drop in Prices. In March-April, 1931, New Zealand lamb averaged about 6d per lb. on the London market, wether mutton 4d, and ewe mutton to A deduction of 2d per lb. from these figures would show tho net amounts received by the grower. Wool in 1924-25 was 22.42 d per lb., in 1926-27, 18.67 d, and in 1931, 5.67 d. At the Amberley (Canterbury) ewe fair five-year-old ewes in 1929 were worth 30s; in 1931 they were sold for ss. Rents and interest charges, taxation and payments for all services must be adjusted to meet the altered conditions if the Dominion was to survive and meet its obligations overseas. The gravity of the situation could not be over-stated, and immediate action was required if default was to be avoided, as tnere was no indication to-day of any other than a period of low prices and very little prospect of any substantial increase in our national in»ome. The position in which the farmers of New Zealand now found themselves was that they were being called upon to re pay debts contracted when the pound was of the value of 12s in pounds which today might be regarded oi: the value of 30s. The main cause of the present trouble being, he believed, a currency one, it. should be capable of adjustment. London Bondholders. '-The interest payable to the London bondholders at present," said Mr. Acland, "is about £8.000,000. Three years ago our wool clip was worth about £15,000,000 and our lamb cheque about £9,000,000. We could then pay this interest with just over half of our wool cheque. To-day our wool cheque is under £5,000,000, and our lamb cheque about the same. In order, therefore, to pay the interest to the London bondholders, we have to give them the gross proceeds of the whole of our Dominion wool clip and about threefourths of tho proceeds of our lamb, leaving practically nothing for us to live on and carry on the country with. "If it is correct that the prices of New Zealand primary products have fallen by about £30,000,000 then this is equivalent, at 7'i per cent, to writing off £400.000.000 from the value of the farming lands of New Zealand." Mr. Acland said it was urgently necessary that the primary industries should be removed from the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Act, as those primary producers who were under awards could not maintain the necessary staffs for the successful working of their properties under existing awards.