THE NORTH ISLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3870, 15 May 1928, Page 20

THE NORTH ISLAND.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Mild conditions have again assertei themselves, and in the absence of frosti grass is growing very fast. The Nortli Island is certainly in a happy position as regards its pasture lands, and not for a lengthy period has there been such an abundance of feed at this time of the year as obtains at present. The prospects for winter are rather good, and the chances of stock maintaining condition until spring arrives are bright. The plenitude of feed is causing a keen demand for stock, farmers believing that the position in that respect is so good that they can afford to have more hoofs on their holdings. It is pleasing to note on some way-back properties that wool sheds and other buildings are going up, and upon inquiry it was ascertained that the Government had been advancing more money to settlers, some of the loans being much overdue. However, the fact that the money has arrived at last has given great satisfaction, and it indicates that farmers’ finance is becoming more buoyant again. Furthermore, the welcome news that the rate of interest at Home has been lowered, as indicated by the flotation of the late New' Zealand loan, will be welcomed by all, and no doubt settlers will be able to get loans more readily than they have in the past. BUTTER BOX TIMBER. It is understood that importations of foreign timbers for butter boxes and cheese crates are steadily on the increase, but the New Zealand Dairy Company and all other companies operating in the Waikato continue to be loyal to New Zealand woods. Despite the fact that some of the imported timbers are cheaper than the New’ Zealand-grown wood, the New Zealand Dairy Company remains loyal to kahikatea, which is considered to be much superior to the imported wood. Tn Taranaki New Zealand w’Ood is used, but in the northern Wairoa foreign woods are mostly favoured.

PASTURE CONTENT. The mineral deficiency problems of the King Country, Waikato, and Rotorua districts in the North Island, in the Nelson district of the South Island, are shortly to be investigated by the Mineral Contents and Pastures Committee of Scientific and Industrial Research. The work will be under the direction of Mr B. C. Aston, - chief chemist to the Department of Agri- i culture. Mr R. E. Grimmett, of the'* same department, who recently returned from a course of study at the Rowett Institute, Aberdeen, will deal with the work in the North Island areas, while Mr T. Rigg, assistant-director of the Cawtliron Institute, will have charge of the work in the Nelson territory. The undertaking involves detailed analyses of soils and pastures, together w?th carefully controlled stock-feeding experiments. The investigations are necessarily of a preliminary nature. They are being carried out w’ith the assistance of the Empire Marketing Board’s annual grant of £2500 for two years, which is subsidised by the New Zealand Government. HERD TESTING VALUE. At a meeting of the Coromandel group of* the New Zealand Co-operative Herd Testing Association, Mr C. M. Hume, general manager of the association, gave a review of the history of the association, and he said that during its first year 31,000 cows were tested. For the season nearing its end, it was thought the average product per cow would be about 2301 b of butter-fat. The Subsidy Allocation Board, which allotted the respective shares of the Government subsidy of £BOOO, on the basis of the number of cows tested by the different groups, has beeh urged to secure a continuance of the subsidy for at least tw’o more years. The association this year expected to collect the subsidy on 60,000 I cows.

A MINISTER OF THE CROWN SPEAKS OUT. The Hon. A. D. M'Leod, Minister of Lands, is noted for the frankness of some of his public utterances, and he undoubtedly took the gloves off when speaking at Levin last week, when dealing with certain statements made from time to time, alleging that thousands of settlers were walking off their holdings. This he designated as grossly untrue and libellous from a national point of view. In contradiction of the statements the Minister went on to show that in the New Zealand Year Book there was set out the number of workers, including working owners and managers, employed in farm work throughout the Dominion. Taking the last two available years, the total number for 1925 was set down at 105,301 males and 37,441 females, a total of 142,742. For the year 1927 the number of males was set dowk as 102,325, and the number of females as 30,424, a total of 132,749, thus showing a decline over all of approximately 10,000. A closer scrutiny of the figures, however, disclosed the fact that the decrease was composed of under 3000 males and over 700 females. “We know,” said Mr M'Leod, “ that in the war years, and in the difficult years following the war, women did valiant service jn keeping (actual farm work going. But if as a result of improved machinery and methods adopted in recent years women have been relieved of the more arduous farm w-ork, the country should be congratulated rather than criticised.” Mr M’Leod stated that it was upon figures such as those he had quoted that reckless statements were made, as, for instance, the one that 13,000 settlers had left the land in two years. There were no statistics available from tanj’ source showing the movements of those occupying the 85,000 rural holdings in the Dominion. He was well aware that during recent years quite a number of settlers had, from a variety of circumstances, unfortunately been forced to walk off farms, leaving hundreds of pounds and sometimes thousands of hard-earned cash behind them. Gross exaggeration of the true position, however, did not help in the least, and only increased the difficulty of obtaining finance for those whose position to practical farmers appeared sound. Although no statistics, proceeded the Minister, were available to prove the position as it existed in regard to rural holdings, there did exist complete statistics in regard to the holders of land from the Crown, numbering at March 31 last no fewer than 30,783, established under permanent tenures of various kinds. Notwithstanding the fact that large numbers had made their land completely freehold since 1912, nnd had thus automatically removed their holdings from the Department s schedules, the total had grown from 20,169 in 1908 to 30,783 in 1928. The average annual number of surrenders, forfeitures, or abandonments over the 20-year period to March 31, 1928, worked out at almost exactly 1 per cent., the highest percentage for the whole period being 1.55 per cent, in 1910, and the lowest .56 per cent, in 1920. For the year 1927 the percentage was 1.46, and for the pi esent year, for which the figures were not yet complete, it was anticipated that the percentage would be a little higher. Let me point out,” added the Minister, that surrender, or even forfeiture, does not mean in a large number of cases the the settler from the holding. If, for instance, a settler wishes to change from on e tenure to another, he has to surrender the old and take up the new. Again, if two names appear on the title of a lease taken up in partnership, and one leaves, as often happens, without effecting a transfer to the remaining partner the interest of the vacating settler has to be forfeited so that the remaining man can be legally established.” Mr M’Leod also said that in order that the position of Crown holdings actually unoccupied might be closely watched he as Minister of Lands, had placed before him a quarterly return giving particulars of unoccupied holdings in each of the 12 land districts in the Dominion. Many holdings, by reason of inaccessibility, poor quality, inclination towards reversion and other causes, had remained unoccupied for several years, and no attempt was being made at present to have them reoccupied. Still. the number of unoccupied holdings which at some period or another had been occupied, was relatively small and at March 31 last totalled 749, or less than 1 per cent, of the occupied rural holdings of the Dominion.

A FARMER’S FEELINGS. Is tlm average farmer an incurable VlTwn* an ', n 9 orri sible. optimist? Dr M Ilwraith, speaking at Hastings last week-end, declared that he was. and he caused some amusement in support of L 1 ® contention when he stated that a faimer of the Hastings district was approached by a friend, who said: “Well now fal y e \ s ha i Ve I noth:ng *° g r °wl about ' ThTf You ) e had a wonderful season.” rn fe rn ? er s re P’y w as; “ M ve / bl t roomss” been a darUed bad crop ° £ liiush -

SHEEP WORRIERS. W?mmnrn wor 7 il ‘S sheep in the anganui district, and some farmers in the vicinity of Castlecliff have sustained 6 40 V d?.? S r S - In ° ne flock n ° fewc r tLan 40 dead sheep were counted, mostly badlv mutilated, and some had their ears‘chewed b?'ii4te ro own’ UP ° S n tFay d ° gS "‘ as made like 10 ° f ? heep ’ and something “he 10 dogs were despatched. As most now h l ’° gS had C '°" ais - the owners are now being approached with a view to Paying for the losses sustained.

CULTIVATION OF TOBACCO tobacco 18 in* 6 V . aSSerted that growers of “macco m .Nelson secure a return of something approximating £lOO an acre Kiiei n h^d at l tG^ tiOn ’ ’ S ! beinß paid to t’m vincr fnr land o 111 the Auc kland proF TnwJ ? s . lmllar Purpose. Mr Charles the Hnrf’ lns i truc , to S’ n tobacco culture in Mr Jfojt’cuHiral Department, of which „ A; Campbell is the head, has iust tion with B '/’ tO ’ Auck]and ’ >n conneche US ’"vestigations he said that he had been over 100 acres of land at Riverhead, which he considered was excellent land for tobacco culture. There Tvere also some likely places in the Hokianga district. At Henderson he m Mlne Land which could be used, and at Whenuapai there were a few acres of the required kind of soil.

r Referring to the fact that growers in Nelson were obtaining a return of £lOO an acre, Mr Lowe said that it was too much. Tlie price would have to come down. _ Tobacco growing was a highly specialised work of intensive culture — rather like tomato growing. One of the advantages was that girls could do the work, and on many of the Nelson farms parents were giving their daughters a few acres from ■which they obtained a good profit. They found that it was giving them reasonable pocket money and quelled the desire to go into the towns and take up office work. Nelson growers were getting the girls who did the hop-picking to come over earlier, do the necessary work on the tobacco farms, go to their .hop-picking engagements, and then return to the tobacco farms to finish off the season. A good average crop of tobacco consisted of 800 pounds of cured leaf to the' acre. Extra special high-priced leaf averaged 650 pounds an acre.' “ The real advancement of tobaccogrowing in the Dominion will come about when tne leaf is sold at public auction." said Mr Lowe. "This is not done at present. The contract system is a bad way of buying leaf. It retards the farmer and removes the incentive to grow good quality tobacco.” Mr Lowe said that the cost of Producing tobacco is comparatively small. Plants, manures, freights, and the necessary implements run into about £l2 an acre, but the whole of this cost does not recur annually.

LAND SETTLEMENT QUESTION. At a meeting of the Auckland section of the New Zealand Land Settlement and Development League the opinion was expressed by that a board should be set up to inquire into land settlement problems. It was considered that a board as suggested could devise the best means of stimulating primary production and evolve a comprehensive land settlement and immigration system suitable for present-dav needs. Objections had been stated that the t me was not opportune for opening large areas, but it was notable that Canada. Western Australia and South Africa bad not discontinued their propaganda work and were receiving large quotas of overseas migrants, who were carrying on development work. Several suggestions for the stimulation of land settlement were considered These included arranging for local farm supervisors to advise on methods, conducting competitions in economic production, recasting the immigration policy to encourage boy immigration particularly, and initiating a system of cadet group settlement. Under this last scheme boys in the Dominion and from overseas would be jointly trained in large camps, and rendered efficient to occupy portions of the group holding. By such means it would be possible to ensure a steady supply of young trained farmers, who, progressing through the various stages, would carry out settlement radiating as far as possible from the developed lands. Such a form of settlement would reduce the hea.vy taxation charges, which must arise from pushing out far from present settled areas. DAIRYMEN’S RETURNS.

In the Taranaki district 22 dairy com panies have distributed £593,440 among suppliers this season, compared with £473.282 2s Id last sea 5 *)!!, an increase of £120,157 17s Hd. The early season gave promise of being one of the most abundant in the history of the district, but the subsequent dry spell caused a sudden decrease in production, and a fey factories have already closed down. The heavy spring returns, however, have com pensated to a large extent for the de cline during the dry period, and forty the English market has been better than it was last season, so that actual payments by dairy companies to March 31 show a. substantial increase compared with the corresponding period of the previous season.

The March yield of butter-fat. is below that of the corresponding month of last year, but this is entirely due to dry weather. However, the higher rates give a bettor financial return. The distribution for March, 1928. was £47.695 19s lid, and for March, 1927, £43,283 16s sd, an increase of £4412 3s 6d. VALUE OF HIDES.

It is the opinion of several merchants that the price of hides may come back considerably, and this view was sustained by an Auckland business man concerned in this particular line. He states that the prices which hides realised in the latter half of last year had the effect of checking consumption to an extraordinary degree. In Boston, which is one of the world’s leading centres for the sale of hides, numbers of tannery establishments have had to close down, as they could not operate at existing rates. It is' true there was a world shortage of hides, and this caused prices to soar, but the shoe-buying public refused to respond to the increased rates necessary for footwear. This of course, meant that the tanners could not sell the leather. Advices from America early in January forecast a decline in prices, and this has been justified by resul.ts. The position in U.S.A, has been 1 effected in Great Britain and in Europe. CATTLE TICK. The Hawke’s Bay A. and P. Society recently made representations to the Minister of Agriculture, urging that every possible precaution should be taken to prevent the spread of cattle tick The society suggested that the certificates issued should be in duplicate, one copy given up at the boundary, and the other copy to be endorsed by the officer in charge jiiid returned to the drover, so that it could be used for inspection purposes when he was on tiie road. At a meeting of the society a few days ago the Hon O. J. Hawken advised that' the matter had been further gone into bv the responsible officers of the Department with a view to seeing if the method suggested would be an improvement on the present system. After carefully considering the matter it was deemed inadvisable to alter the present system. In giving a duplicate certificate to the drover it would be found in practice that he would retain it instead of delivering it as he would be expected to do, and in time there would be a considerable number of these in the possession of these men, and who was to say what use would be made of them? Should an inspector be in doubt about any stock coming from the infested area, a collect

wire to the boundary-keeper would put him in possess’on of the facts within a few hours. Regarding the suggestion that a copy of the permit be sent to the stock inspector at the place of 'destination, it was pointed out that while this was quite satisfactory in the case of stock passing from one district to an adjoining clean district, it lost its value somewhat when the stock had to pass through one or more districts to their destination. So far as to be effective each inspector would require to have a copy of the permit, and this was hardly a possible proposition. However, arrangements would be made, as in fact operated to some extent at least already, for the inspector of stock to be supplied with a copy of the permit issued. “I wish to assure you that as far as it is humanly possible the officers of my Department will see that all stock are effectively treated before leaving the district, and any owners trying to evade the regulations will be severely dealt with,” stated the Minister in conclusion.

" I still think we should keep a vigilant watch,” added Mr R. H. Ted. "I have a suspicion that there can be a leakage.”