FARMERS' CONDITIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21404, 31 January 1933, Page 12

FARMERS' CONDITIONS

Sir, —Granted that the farmers need assistance during these dark times, and provided the community as a whole desires it, then the only just procedure is to pay the farmers a direct State bounty. The farmers would then know the exact amount of benefit, they, -.vere receiving, and the community would know precisely how much it was sacrificing to save the primary industry. This form of subsidy, also, can ba discontinued immediately it were no longer required—unlike the manifold other "schemes," or protective measures, which grow interminably on what they are fed. I would suggest to Mr. Calder tlu.t though wiping the slate clean of both internal, private and external public debts, would no doubt ease the position greatly, while nations are held in bondage by private land monopoly, and its concomitant evils of protective tariffs (perniciously sheltering uneconomic industries). and inflated speculative land values (the curse of this country, and obviously the main reason for the abilirdly high costs of farm production), there will be no permanent improvement anywhere. 'Were Mr. Calder and his fel-low-farmers to regard their farms as their homes, and not as pieces of merchandise later to be sold in an inflated land market, their view of the "land question"doubtlessly would be different, and far healthier. John Eelluil Parnell.