PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8481, 16 July 1913, Page 9

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS

INTERESTING REVIEW.. The president, in his annual address, after welcoming the delegates, said:--"During the year which has passed 'since we last met, New Zealand has experienced a fine season on the whole. It is natural in a country like ours, where there are so many degrees of latitude and such a difference in the conformation that we should hare a variety of climates, so that it is almost an impossibility for any season to be a aood one all ovei the Dominion. Yet, 'the season' has much to do with the prosperity or otherwise of New Zealand. It is difficult to over-estimate the value ol a climate such as we have, and which enables us to have such a variety of produce. In the north of Auck land they have had a really seven drought, but the May returns of the rainfall show that they have had an average rainfall" during that month, and it is to be hoped that the grass lias recovered. All down the East Coast of the North Island there has been dry weather, and even now, in some parts of Hawke's Bay, the creeks are dry, and there has been little growth of grass. The season has been a dry one there on the whole. After a cold spring, the West Coast has had an excellent season. But in May the YVainui-o-mata district had a phenomenal fall of rain, 22 inches at the reservoir, so Wellington is not likely to suffer from want of water. There has been an exceptionally dry month on the West Coast, with a number of successive frosts, and the ground has quite dried up. In the South Island the crops have not neen as g(»d as usual. Stock have, however, done remarkably well in most parts, and as there have been very ■ remunerative prices, graziers have had a good year.

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY. Referring to the dairy industry, Mr Wilson' made some interesting statements regarding the climatic suitability for this class of farming in the various parts of the Dominion. "Dairying has made such strides in the last few years," he went on to say, "that the export value of the produce of the industry is greater than that of the frozen meat trade for the first time this year; frozen meat returned us £3,650,648, whereas dairy produce is entered as £3,915,794, and this, although the price of both butter and cheese have been considerably below those of last year. There seems a likelihood of a still further expansion in the near future. With the high prices of the last few years for dairy produce, land has risen very much in value, and is constantly changing hands in the favoured spots at increasing prices. In areas suitable for carrying about 25 cows, £75 is being paid for land in the best dairying districts. Most people would say that this price is far beyond the value, but there are those who aver that it is not too high, and base that statement on the fact that even at these prices men are making a comfortable living from 25 cows. The time was when £lO a cow was looked upon as a phenomenal prico. Now, in some cases, double that amount is made. There is no doubt that people are realising more and more that if such high-priced land is going to pay, that it will do so much better if the stock are purebreds of their particular breed. They give more milk and their progeny are, of course, more valuable. HIGH PRICES. "It is certain that prices on the whole are very remunerative, and I can give an authentic case of a man who gave £75 an acre coming out very well at the end of the season. With a milking machine 25 cows are fairly easily managed by one man. About 40 acres will, in the best dairy districts, keep 25 cows in milk, and the ordinary £2OOO investod in land, say £250 in the cows:—

207 10 0 £lB3 10 0 MILKING MACHINES A MENACE. "Many men. however, have gone into dairying without much experience. They have installed miiking machines 2nd have not been trained in the sanitarp habits of the first-class dairyman. These machines are in consequence beo/vrninpc a distinct nvenace to the trade; sf they are not kept clean the butter or cheese made from.milk which has jone through them cannot be firsxeloss. Yet it is certain that the fndustry cannot do without them under present conditions. In butter-making the milk is to a large extent filtered hv centrifugal force- whicn the milk is subjected to in the -separator, but in clioeso this is not done, and any impuri-

ties in the nnlk, unless drawn off with the whey, go into the cheee. DIRTY MACHINES. "Mr Cuddi© lately made the alarming stateroom that only 23 per cent., of tho machines which his officers had examined were clean. Home separation, too, is another source of danger if the separator is not kept clean. It too has come to stay, anti in the case of buttermaking the pasteurising of the cream makes it possible to get rid of tho deleterious ferments. How we are to inculcate cleanliness to the careless dairy people is a problem which must bo solved, or tho reputation wo have so carefully built up will be lost. Already there have been serious complaints as to tho quality of our cheese, and Mr Cuddio and his officials have been very emphatic of the necessity fm improvements, and it is to be hoped the department's warning, together with the indifferent reports on last season’s cheese, will ensure a change for the bettor.” WOOL.

“Sheepfarmers,” went on Mr Wilson, “have had on the whole a vory # satisfactory year. The wool was somewhat light in the grease, but clean and generally bright, and realised high prices for all the classes. The supply of wool in the world is not sufficient, by all accounts, to meet tho demand, and it is possible that there will be an increased demand for wool if the Americans put it on tho free list. This change in tho American jxilicy of protection is very significant. The High tariff on wool has made clothes so costly to the worker that they have demanded that tho tariff should be reduced so as to cheapen the raw product. The requirements of the population of the States have crown far beyond tho native wool produced, and the result has been largo importations at prohibitive rates, wnich have had to he passed on to the consumer, thus increasing the cost of living. If tho cheapening of clothes is the result .and the people buy more in consequence, it will, of course, have a hardening effect in prices. FROZEN MEAT. “Our frozen meat trade, too, has been remunerative. Companies should have done well, and prices paid for stock have been good. The trade was seriously threatened by a slaughtermen’s strike in what is usually the height of the season. The season was, however, a late one. Rape did not come in as early as usual, and, after the milk-fat lambs were gone, there was a considerable' lull in tho trade owing to the lambs not being ready. Wethers and ewes can, of course, be kept for a considerable time without deteriorating, but lambs, unless they are taken when they are ripe, go off in some cases very rapidly. THE SLAUGHTERMEN’S STRIKE. “ It was happily at this slack time that the slaughtermen decided to strike. But the firm attitude of all concerned and the loyal support of the farmers enabled the companies to deal satisfactorily with the position, and secure other hands to take the places of the strikers, and the tension was relieved. Some farmers and their sons loyally assisted tho companies, and went on the board. It was a great object lesson, and where workers are prepared to sacrifice a trade in the midst of a busy season simply to coerce the employers to give exorbitant wages, there is only one way to meet the case, viz. : when all reasonable attempts have been made to secure peace, the farmers must be prepared to deal with the case themselves. GRAIN-GROWING. “In grain-growing the season has been slightly under the average,” said Mr Wilson. “ Roughly speaking, we grew about six million bushels of wheat and twelve million bushels of oats. The wheat will be barely enough for our requirements, as the farmer sells nearly all his wheat. Tho value of this crop, in cash (deducting the requirements for seed), to him is about £BOO,OOO or £900,000. Possibly half the oats grown in the Dominion are consumed on the farm, for the horses, which prepare tho ground and put in all tho grain and fodder crops, have to be fed. If that is so, the cash return to the farmers is not much more than £600,000, making in all £1,500,000 for this class of produce. When this is compared to the returns from dairy produce, or frozen meat or wool, it will be seen that grain-growing takes relatively a much lower position in the farming world than these other exports, and apparently there is a likelihood of there being still less of our land being devoted to this class of crop. FRUIT FARMING. “I am glad to think the fruit farming in New Zealand has really made a forward movement,” continued tho president. “Hitherto, we have done tittle more than supply our own wants, but the great expansion which has been going on in the Nelson province shows us that we shall soon be exporting large quantities of apples. The quality has been highly 1 spoken of, and an opening has been made in a remunerative trade with South America. It is also making what was always looked upon as indifferent land very highly remunerative. In the next feuyears, when the orchards got into bearing, we may hope to see a large, prosperous, and increasing number of fruit-growers in the Dominion. It is an occupation, too, that women, if they are so inclined, might become very successful at, and it might be combined with poultry-farming with advantage.” TEN YEARS’ EXPORTS. Mr Wilson'then read the following schedule comparing exports of agricultural products for years ending March 31st, 1903 and 1913:

THE LAND BILL. “The Land Bill passed by the House last session was a satisfactory conclusion to many years of fighting for the , principle that every man having a Crown leasehold should hare the rignl to convert it into freehold if he wished. It is needless for me to go into the benefits accruing to both the State and the individual. These' are too well known for me to do so. Mr Massey, who has never wavered in his advocacy of this principle, carried the Bib through as an instalment, and we are promised that the right will be extended to the leaseholder on settlement lands this session. I will refer later to one drawback which the tenure has In common with native land. tn order to partially free tho State of its load of debt, it must be a good thing to sell assets which are not paying us; we can then re-invest tho money which comes in from the payment for tho freehold in other lands to settle, and the system would then become a continuous one, tho State acting as agent between the owner and the would-be purchaser. The State would charge a small commission to pay expenses and the individual would gel his land. Reading in many cases has to be provided for, and should bo completed before sale, and be made a charge on the land. Without roads land is of no use for close settlement. IMMIGRATION.

‘ ‘The question of immigration of boys has been the subject of a considerable amount of correspondence between tho anion and tho Minister, but nothing so far has been arranged. I am afraid that there is some friction between the new Immigration Department and the Labour Department in connection with it, as shown by the evidence given before the Dominion’s Commission. It has been suggested „hat suitable farm labourers should b. selected by special officers and the passage provided at low rates. 1 an. afraid, however, that this Would nol succeed as well as we could wish. Goon agricultural labourers are scarce a. dome. They have been leaving the country for Canada by many thousands per week, and it has had the effect of raising tho wages of those remaining very materially. They are engaged for six months, and at the last hiring wages had increased ■ ali over Scotland and England. More and more inducement will be made to keep the good ones. Boys carefully selected at Home and brought out under personal supervision, and put out to service under a Government Department, who would act as guardian, has already succeeded, and I hope the Minister will see his way to continue this importation. He is especially to be commended for arranging that domestics will bo placed under the care of responsible people on landing. “Mr Sedgwick has been indefatigable in keeping this subject before the public and had several interviews with the Hon. Mr Allen and Sir Walter Buchanan at Home. It lias been suggeeted that boys should be sent to a training farm before they come out here, hut the general opinion, both in Australia and bore, is that tb© best training farm is to put them out to

A £ s. d. £ a.d. Int. oa £2000 at 6 per cent. 120 0 0 Int. on £250 at 7 per cent. ... 17 10 0 Rates and taxes (say) ......... 20 0 0 Repairs, sinking fund, etc. (say) 50 0 0 Return from 25 cows at £17 (actual amount received) 425 0 0 lloturn from calves, 15, at £3 apiece ... 450 0 Return from pigs (1 per 25 0 0 207 10 0 495 0 0

Products. 1903. Quantity. Value. 1913. Quantity. Value, Butter Cwt. 263.196 £ 1,263,759 Cwt. 369,133 £ 2,056,615 Oheces 74,611 181,604 634,173 1,859,177 Hoof, frozen — 281,401 881,823 260,880 824,578 Mutton, frozen 1,354,141 1,621,522 1,092,692 1,541,250 Lamb, frozen 667,767 5,863.620 1.053,383 901,116 1,825,312 Grain, Wheat and Grain, and pulse than Wheat and Oats Bush. 755,198 4,494,941 564,291 other Oats Bush. 497,199 91,945 Bush. ' 694,657 162,872 Potatoes Tons 17,545 72,635 Tons 19,944 150,601 Hemp Tons 22,301) 575.153 Tons 21,567 483,353 Tow Tone 2,042 7,727 Tons 4,106 41,005 Hops Cwt. 1.317 11,477 Cwt. 2,310 30.698 Didos ... No. 50,025 49,521 No. 155.230 234,735 Skins (all kinds) ... No. 13,653.506 481.769 No. 16,826,066 860,082 (Billow Tons 21 481 573.830 Tons 23,011 672,849 Wool ... Lb. 166,561,151 3,924,484 Lb. 195,782,543 8,665,945 Totals — ' 11,057,101 — 18,867,098