RUINED FARMERS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17608, 26 October 1931, Page 8

RUINED FARMERS

IN WESTERN .CANADA “Wheat farming conditions in Canada are appalling,” said Mr. H. C. Davies, financial editor of the West Australian, avlio is in Sydney, en route foi» Perth, after a world tour. “Once-fertile farming districts in Canada,” ho continued, “are noAV desolate wastes, and -men who in 1927 Avere well-to-do are now at the end of their resources. In many districts in Western Canada no one Avas working in the fields, and in some -parts scarcely a person was to lie seen near the houses and barns. To add to their misery there had been a plague of grasshoppers. In one municipality of 2500 people, not two dozen were .self-supporting. There are scores of townships in which similar conditions prevail.” Mr Davies explained that for four years in succession .the Canadian wheat crop had been worth 400,000,000 dollars. It then dropped to about half that amount, and this year its value was only 60,000,000 dollars. Many measures of relief were being taken by tho provincial Governments, in connection with the Dominion Government, and some of the farmers, backed by their Avomenfolk, were determined to try their luck with next season’s orop. Fully 50 per cent, of the farmers of Western Canada were unable to pay their taxes, and the collapse in prices had brought ruin to many.