ASSISTED FARMERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23117, 16 August 1938, Page 13

ASSISTED FARMERS

Sir, —"Citizen's" determined attempts to explain the £18,000,000 annual subsidv paid the farmers of New Zealand by the rest of the community will fail to convince the average farmer to-day. "Citizen's'' main contention is the exchange rate. But even the exchange "bonus" would be non-existent if the farmers of New Zealand had not exported some £00,000.000 of produce last season. And (lie power of the community to "assist" the farmers would be non-existent without the primary wealth produced by tin' farmers. The truth is the community in New Zealand is completely dependent on production from the land, and no political juggling with statistics or figures can alter that fact. "Citizen" goe< on ta state that some 45.000 farmers have had their average net incomes increased from £lO2 in 19:35 to an average of £"SO in ]!).'3B. Nice to know—but again facts do not tit in with political figures. In the ]9.'35-."36 season the dairy pay-out averaged Is Id without the guarantee; in 19!36-.'37 with the guarantee it averaged Is IJd; in 19.')7-.'38 the average dairy company pay-out was not; more than Is 2Jd, or an increase of 1 Jd over the 19.'35 prices. Taking the average dairy farmer's production at 61001b. of butter-fat. the actual increase in payments for butter-fat per average farmer since 19.'35 would be £10 —quite a gap between £lO2 in 19.'i5 and £.'350 in 1P!38. and onlv a visible increase in pav-outs of £lO. Against the £4O average increase in pay-out we have a decline last season of 7J per cent, in dairy production, while farm costs, etc., have certainly eaten up the £lO and over since 19.'35. My statement about "ordinary taxation" was wrong—it. should have been "extraordinary taxation." The unem-ployment-employment taxation or its counter-part has risen from £.'3.250.000 in 19.'35 to an estimate of £8.000.000 for this vear, sales tax from under £2,000,000 to nearly £4,000.000, and so on. And the whole basis the present Government is depending on for its grandiloquent schemes is "more production," or the poor "assisted" farmer and his wife and children. w.D.K.