COUNTRY NEWS

Southland Times, Issue 18857, 24 June 1920, Page 7

COUNTRY NEWS

WAIHOKA. Most of our farmers are now busy with the plough, and there is no question but the season is very suitable for pushing on all classes of farm work. By the appearance of things there is going to be a much larger area under cultivation than for several years. Undoubtedly the high price of produce is tending to swing back the hands of the farm clock and induce the farmer to go into cereal growing again. But the general public must not understand by this that prices are likely to recede to the levels of ten or twelve years ago bcause they will not. Unless something in the way of a general slump takes place, prices are likely to remain high compared with the prices of pre-war days. Not only is there a dearth of agricultural labour throughout New Zealand, but, in view of the high initial cost of ail classes of machinery and especially of all grades of manure, it would never pay farmers to grow cereals if compelled to sell at the old standard rates. The cast of production hag gone up in most civilised countries and consequently the raw article is going to cost the consumers more in the future than in the past. The forcing of the farming community to fall into line and comply with various labour laws is having the only logical ending it could have—increasing of the cost of production. When the labour of hoys and girls is divorced from all kinds of farm work, when farm labour is put on a par with town labour as to hours of labour or housing restrictions, and when farmers are thoroughly educated up to the commercial side of their calling, we may have to fare an even higher rate, in the prime cost, than that at present ruling. Failing a high or profitable price for his cereals, it is certain that the farmer of the future will not continue to produce them. Fanners, in New Zealand at least, are beginning to realise that for years they have been slaving themselves and families producing raw products which have vastly enriched the manufacturers and distributors while they themselves have had perforce to be content with a bare living. That state of affairs is not going to continue indefinitely. The State Taxation Department now compels farmers to keep accounts and as a natural consequence farmers are taxing costs and checking expenses. Farmers are beginning to strike an annual balance and it I is safe to assume that in the near future I only those branches of their callings which I pay their way will have any hope of being continued. The fine open season is rendering the shortage of feed less noticeable, and not so important as it would have been had the season been an unfavourable or stormy one. Stock are keeping well up in condition, but Ihe “humbugging” over the question of space in our freezing works has been much t commented on by those having fat stock [ on which they honed to get away at a given date. Who are the people that fanners and graziers are to blame for the impasse? ho far as can bo seen by what has hapjxmed, the Imperial authorities have promised our Premier that ships would bo sent to New Zealand to lift our stored up produce. As usual the Imperial authorities have made a hideous and almost inhuman blunder in storing up immense quantities of foodstuff with the ostensible object of making a huge profit on their war dealings in food and raw materials while Europe is starving, instead of diverting stored up supplies that are accumulating here and in Great Britain to where it is needed. The withholding of shipping from New Zealand by allowing congestion of shipping to go on at English ports, to allow good foodstuffs to deteriorate in British ports while human beings in millions are existing in a state of semistarvation, does not rebound to the credit of those men at Home who are supposed to control these questions. The bungling that has taken place with respect to the clearing of our stores of Imperial purchases of raw material and foodstuff seemingly is going to depress the prices of such things as we .are here holding in store, but which should, long ere this, have been cleared. The drop in rabbit skins put a big check on the rage for “going rabbiting,” but quite a number are still making good money catching bunny. It Ls one of the farm pests that are difficult to effectually deal with. Kill them off this year and next season finds the burrows once again occupied and bunny as plentiful as over. Their amazing rate of increase is one of the marvels of animal life. Poisoned pollard long held strong favour with the department and the settlers, hut lately strychnine has been used to advantage. July and August arc considered good months to poison. On account of the lessened traffic, on our roads, and an exceptionally favourable season the roads throughout our district are now in capital order. The cost of upkeep of our roads, however, is one of growing importance to the ratepayers, and coupled with the gradual increase in the valuation of rural lands and the demand for better roads, the county expenditure is assuming such proportions that many thoughtful ratepayers arc beginning to wonder where the end is to be. The cost of maintenance is about treble now to what it used to be, and by every appearance the limit is not yet reached. The material used in most cases, however, is much superior and the bridges and culverts are more substantial, but then the cost is enormously higher than formerly,, and the difference is purely relative. And then, too, the cry is for better and more permanent roads even in face of growing cos-ts and increasing values. There are many who think that our County Council are not up-to-date in road construction and bridge building, and that concrete bridges ami roads should take (he place of wooden culverts and gravel tracks, and that we should get ready to bring in the travel miilenium. It is certain that the growth of motor traffic and the developments of electrical power must influence inland travel, and that good roads are of paramount importance if we are to develop our resources. The question is an important one, and in the near future we must become much more insistent than at present. However, it is safe to say that the badly graded and often ill-formed roads and narrow, often dangerous, culverts deserve the mature attention of the county members.