The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, MAT 9, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 691, 9 May 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, MAT 9, 1879.

The success ami prosperity of the farming interests of Poverty Bay are what concetns us all m a very large degree. It is well then that we should consider[the causes whic hhave lead to such a general depression, and why farming, as a rule, has not paid with us. There are three things which appear to us which act as an overpowering iucubus upon the agricultural population. First : The greed of the money lender. Second : The high price of labor. Third : The low price of produce. What says Mr. Arthur 1 Claydon, no mean anthority surely upon matters agricultural. He tells us that he nnds numbers of farmers paying ten per cent., and even more, per annum, for their borrowed capital. The' result of this is seen m palatial bank buildings, with numbers of well-paid officials on one side, Avith tumble down homesteads, aud impoverished farmers on the other side. Air. Claydon proposes the following remedy. — "Let the Government be the lender to needy land owners. English money can be got at five per cent, m any quantity, and it should ba lent at six per cent. This one per cent, would more than pay expenses, and an infinite boon would be conferred on New Zealand farmers." The suggestion is not a new one, but it is none the worse because it is so. But the policy of the Government has hitherto been to get as much money squeezed from the sale of crown lands without caring one straw how the farmer is to live after being so heavily handicapped. We believe it to be the bounden duty of the Government to afford some assistance m forwarding the agricultural interests by some such means as that suggested by Mr. Claydon, and we hope that something will be done by patriotic members, and we believe we are not without them, m the coming session of Parliament. With respect to the second cvil — the high price of labor, Mr. Claydon utters the following well-deserved censure. He says, "It is impossible that an absurdity which . I saw perpetrated at Nelson, a few months ago, can be much longer m danger of being repeated, when unskilled laborers — mere shorel aud pick men — -struck for an extra shilling per day when m actual receipt of eight shillings for eight hours work. I, who have spent a good part of my life m getting underpaid laborers a better wage, protest against such folly as this, and I go further, and give it as, my deliberate conviction that a wage "from five to six shillings per .day, as it is all that a New Zealand farmer can afford to give for

unskilled labor, is also as much as the laborer ought to demand. But this may be well left to the slow but sure operation of the great law of supply and demand. Of this laborers may be quite sure : They will not long retain a monopoly of such pleasant prospects as eight or nine shillings for eight hours work m the most beautiful climate of the world, and where a leg of mutton can be bought for eighteenpeiice, affords. If Englishmen do not flock here m crowds, the Chinese-will, I believe that the tide of emigration New Zealand wards has m reality only just commenced to roll m. Where a hundred Englishmen now arrive, a thousand will before ten years are past." As regai'ds the third hindrance to the welfare of New Zealand farmers — the low price of produce — I believe the remedy must be looked for m some sort of co-operative public market. It is the middlemen — that is, the retailer, who comes between the producer and consumer — who robs the farmer of his just reward. The difference between what the consumer has to pay for farm produce, especially m the matter of meat, poultry, eggs, fruit, vegetables, <fee, and what the producer receives, is sufficient to make all the difference m the yearly balancesheet of the latter. I called on a farmer a short time back who had just sold fifty sheep to a butcher for twenty pounds. This was under two pence per pound. The consumer would have to j)ay fourpence per pound for the same. Here was a loss to the farmer of twenty pounds. Surely some remedy for such an injustice] ought tto be found. Why do not New Zealand farmers learn the value of combinations ? There should be a strong central body answei'ing to the " Royal Agricultural Society" of England, and each district should have its local branch. These branches should meet once a month to discuss questions relating to their occupation, and one member should prepare a, paper for each meeting bearing on some special subject. The Press would give publicity to such well digested papers, and thus a new life would be thrown into the all important work. Mr. Claydon says to him, it is distressing to find the large extent to which the properties of our hardworking agriculturists are heavily mortgaged. " I find on every hand, "| he says, " toiling, industrious men gradually succumbing to the heavy handicapping of this terrible burden. They are unable to avail themselves of the various scientific aids to agriculture, and as a consequence, the unequalled natural advantages which they enjoy m a climate well nigh perfect, and soil infei'ior to none upon the face of the earth, are, to say the least, but very inadequately improved. I never had this brought home to me more painfully than at a recent agricultural show which I attended at Richmond. In Canada during my tour with Mr. Arch, I attended several agricultural shows, and was both astonished and delighted at what I saw of Colonial enterprise and ingenuity. But this Richmond show was most distressing. I never witnessed a more bankrupt affair m my life. Thex'e was literally nothing to see worth crossing a paddock to look at, and the only spot on the grounds where there was any vitality, was the publican's booth. This is all too true Mr. Claydon. Hitherto we have given too much attention to the interests of woolgrowing, and too little to the cultivation of the soil. We have seen, until very lately, the assistance which banks and Land Loan Companies have given to the sheep farmer, and how assistance lias been steadily refused to the tiller of the soil. We can do no more than point out the disadvantages and drawbacks the farmer labors under. Keeping facts m sight is all the newspaper press can do. Time, and the co-operation of the farmers, are the only cures which will bring them right.