MORE PRODUCTION

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10963, 27 July 1921, Page 4

MORE PRODUCTION

A FAMILIAR CRY DESCRIBED AS “ALL VERT EXCELLENT ADVICE.” WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. Touching on the cry for “more pro* duction,” Mr G. W. I.eadiey (president! said, at the Farmere' Union Conference, yesterday, that what the fanners had ueen oticicd was “all very excellent advice.” but “when we are told that the grand total output of primary products for this Dominion for the year ended April 30th, 1021, was £49,777,939 in value, and that this is the result of the labour of 80,000 farmers employing about 80,000 assistants, then I do not think we have much to be ashamed of, and note this is the value of our surplus products. What is the value of the commodities which we produced and which are consumed within the Dominion. The wool, skins, hides, flour, meat, butter, cheese, milk, eggs, oatmeal, potatoes, and not forgetting the barley for the beer, all of which has to come out of the land, then we have a total of very respectable dimensions; a result not approached by any other population of equal size that I know of anywhere, and giving evidence of the industry and enterprise of our farmers, pastoralists, and dairymen. and others that is worthy of mention. A FEW FIGURES. “As illustrative of this point, let m-4 quote a few figures from the Government ‘Year Book’ of 1920. There* were exported from New Zealand for the year ended March 31st, 1920, 4,127,853 carcases of frozen mutton, and 3,420,220 carcases of lamb. During the same period there were consumed locally approximately 2,000,000 carcases. lu addition to these figures there are the killings by fannens for their own consumption in 1919-20, which is given as 6*1.136 sheep; 57,529 lambs for food. “In regard to wool, in addition to producing for export 258,363,5241 b weight of wool, there was also produced and sold to our local mills no less than 6,720,400!b weight, making a total of 2&5,083,9241b. ' “Then, in regard to beef —still quoting from the same authority—l find that there were 413.206 head of cattle slaughtered for food purposes, of an approximate weight of 2,951,471 cwt. The weight' of frozen beef exported was 576,054 cwt. “There is no table showing the quantity of butter and cheese retained in the Dominion for home consumption, but from figures given elsewhere l find that in the census of industrial manufactures for the year ended March 13th, 1919, the total quantity of butter manufactured in registered butter factories was 509,093 cwt, of which the quantity exported daring this period was 429,627 cwt, leaving something like 80,0Q0cwt for home consumption. “A SPLENDID RECORD.” “AH these figures go to show what s splendid record of industry and enterprise has been registered by the men on the land. During recent years farmers have been accused by some of having adopted the ‘go-slow’, policy, but records like these do not disclose any evidence of going slow. Rather do they show that our farmers and pastoralists and dairymen have been bringing to bear upon their business a degree of energy and of intelligent application which is not exceeded by any similar number of men in the same business anywhere in the world. Indeed, one writer, recently returned from a tour through the Australian States, says that from what he saw of the methods of the Australian farmere, they cannot be compared with the New Zealanders, either in methods adopted or the results achieved.”