MY COUNTRY NOTEBOOK

Otago Witness, Issue 3808, 8 March 1927, Page 38

MY COUNTRY NOTEBOOK

By

MURIHIKU.

(Specially Written for the Witness.) Last week I attended one of those depressing affairs —a forced clearing sale. A man and bis wife, who for about ten years have worked hard on a small property, had their two hundred odd sheep, a few cows, and a score of fowls sold' off post-haste to the highest bidder.

The woman pathetically surveyed the ruins of what was once her borne, while the man himself ran up and down before the buyers the old horses which had made up his plough team. Both man and wife worked mechanically, and the usual puff about the good horse and the deep-milking cow was conspicuously absent. For if the horses brought £5O each and the cows a ten pound note, still there would not be enough to satisfy those who held the mortgage and the bill-of-sale.

All over the Dominion this process is going on. The people farming the secondclass land are being slowly but steadily driven off their holdings. What is the value of second-class land in small holdings? Twenty years ago this farm was worth about £5~ per acre, and tnen apparently made ends meet then. During the war years and the boom just after, it went up to only about £B. That was when these people bought in.

Then came the depression of 1921-22. Farmers on poor land then found that the price, of their produce dropped amazingly, but everything necessary, for working the land kept up in price- Credit was freely obtained for a time But the more credit given, the greater the indebtedness of the farmer. But optimists as they must be, the farmer and" his wife struggled on. Two years ago it seemed as if things wer e recovering somewhat. But this season of 1926-27 has brought the finishing touches. Men everywhere are “walking off.”

The small farm we are speaking of is now back on a stock and station agent’s hands, and perhaps £3 per acre might buy it in a month or so. The farmer has lost a thousand pounds ; the stock agents may lose a like sum.

Farms are going begging everywhere to-day. The Clifton Settlement, near Balclutha, is a case in point. Originally bought for soldier settlement for somewhere about £lO per acre, it was loaded with surveying and roading costs, and was eventually offered to returned soldiers at about £ll per acre. Many sections were taken up, but, one by one, the original selectors left, until only four of the original ones were left.

Then came an agitation for a re-valu-ation. “The tim e was not ripe,” and the unoccupied portions of the estate—ovei 3000 acres—were put under the control of a manager. For .five years ploughing, draining, liming, and top-dressing were carried on at the expense of the state/ Meantime the soldiers’ - agitation was carried on, and eventually the rents averaging about Ils per acre were reduced to about 7s.

The States’ 3000 acres being now in good heart, a complete revaluation was made, and the highly-improved sections—now valued at about Bs—were submitted for selection. This was an open ballot available to civilians as well a s soldiers. Although supposed to be highly improved the rent at least 3s on acre below the original valuation, not one local applicant cafne forward. Some of the land-seekers came from Oamaru way, the others from Central and Southland. In the end there was a ballot for only one section, two men competing; for two other-, sections there was one applicant each; the rest of the estate was not wanted by anybody at the price. Two selectors have since repudiated the deal, leaving only one man still in possession of this recently-balloted-for settlement.

To-day a carefully selected board of valuers is carefully valuing Clifton Settlement to see what it- really is worth. The plain fact is that land which was bought at boom time round about £lO per acre will now have to be reduced to somewhere near £4 or £5.

Much of our settled land is lying idle to-day ; a very big acreage seems to be absolutely unsaleable : yet we hear people, especially in the North, urging the settlement of th e “waste lands of the North. - ’ But why bother about waste lands which will cost a small fortune to break-in, when we have more brokeß-in land than we can profitably farm. The job of the Minister of Lands to-day is not to go out into the wilderness and find new farms, but tq, keep the present farmers on the farms they already have.

“Waste lands!” Why are they lying idle? Because it would pay no one to break them in. There are waste lands in nearly every old civilised country—yes, even in England, Scotland, and Wales. It is not economically payable to bring tn every acre of land in every country.

Fanners are very bewildered to-day. Prices for primary products are slipping and slipping. Down the slope career land values in sympathy. But the price of money stays up, and so does the price of labour. . Only this week Judge Frazer, of the Arbitration Court, rules that the freezing worker is entitled to higher wages. Now those increased costs cannot be passed on to the buyer of our mutton and lamb at Home. So the producer will have to shoulder them. Here again we have a ease of the farmers’ income from his fat stock being depreciated, while his costs go up.

And this time the costs go up because “to refuse an increase of Id per hour to the lower-paid time workers would bring them below the standard fixed by the last award. . . .” It has been said many times before, but it will need to be said many times again apparently: If the prosperity of this -country depends upon the production of the farmer, then if the national income is to be determined by overseas prices, the remuneration of the workers in all the industries must be determined on the same principle. How the vicious circle of the rising cost o! living and the increasing of wages is to be broken. T know not’.

In the meantime it is nice to know that the President of the Arbitration Court “feels impelled to make reference . . . passed by different bodies . . . calling on firn Government to introduce legislation for the repeal of the Act”; especially as the offenders should have chosen a time when an important case was pending. But when the livelihood of men is at stake they are not apt to observe all the little niceties of Court etiquette. The salary of the Arbitration Court Judge is fixed (no one objects to that); the wages of the freezing employees are also fixed (and fixed a little higher than they were before); the. income of the farmer is not fixed, but is steadilv progressing downwards. Apparently there will need to he many more forced clearing sales before the legislators really do something.

These notes of mine to-day may seem a little depressing : but I still have visions of the weary-looking man leading the old horse at the clearing sale. He is now out looking for a job, but he will not go down to the city and wait round the unemployed bureau for a job. He will go away somewhere, and with hi s stouthearted wife will take on a job for a few shillings a week, “and his tucker.’’