NORTH ISLAND FARMERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18321, 11 August 1921, Page 6

NORTH ISLAND FARMERS

THEIR SORRY PLIGHT. “AN ORGY OF SPENDING.” (From Odr Own Correspondent.) PALMERSTON N., August 10. Hawke's Bay and the Wairarapa are passing through a depressing period, owing to the bottom having fallen out of the wool market, the buoyancy of which so helped to made the district prosperous in pre-war times and during the war period. At the present time the outlook is certainly bad, and that opinion was emphasised by Mr Hugh Morrison, one of the most prominent breeders of the Wairarapa, during a brief stay in Palmerston North. Many settlers who were supposed to be in a strong financial position, he said, were finding it exceedingly difficult to pay interest on their first mortgages, and a number who bad gone to towns to reside had been compelled to go back to their farms. The price of land had come down with a rush, and many who had bought at high prices were in a shaky condition. The value of a bale of wool to-day was not more than £5, and when overhead charges were paid there was little left for the producer. Breeders of store stock had been unable to sell, and there was practically no market for store cattle. The drought of the last two years had left its mark upon the district. Asked if there was no prospect of Wairarapa sheeptarmers and cattle breeders engaging in dairying, Mr Morrison stated that there was absolutely none. There was no water on the hill country, and water was essential to dairying. The Wairarapa settlers admitted that there might_ be an improvement in the wool market in the near future, but he feared that when this arrived there would be a slump in frozen meat. “The squatters of the Wairarapa have got it in the neck.” he added. “Many of them. I fear, will be down and out. On top of the low prices there is the heavy taxation and the increased valuations. My own land was put up so high in the recent valuation that I offered it to the Government at the price at which it was assessed.” Mr Morrision was asked whether the settlers had not made sufficient money during the fat years to tide them over several lean years. He replied that good money had been made, but there had hcen_ an orgy of spending. Everybody bought highpriced motor cars, and lived on the fat of the land, foolishly expecting that their prosperity would continue. Now there was an awakening. Some had devotqd their profits to clearing off mortgages, and others to buying further estates, for which they paid only part cash. Now they were loaded up with interest which they simply could, not pay.