FARMING INDUSTRY

Southland Times, Issue 22297, 12 April 1934, Page 7

FARMING INDUSTRY

POSITION IN AUSTRALIA. SIR HUGH DENISON INTERVIEWED. (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, April 11. Sir Hugh Denison, chairman of directors of Associated Newspapers, Ltd, Sydney, arrived with Lady Denison by the Wanganella to-day, and proceeds on the Rangitanc on a twelve months’ trip abroad. In an interview he remarked: “The opinion generally held in Australia is that a commission’s findings, when the evidence is completed, will be that from 50 to GO per cent, of the farmers are on the breadline, 30 to 40 per cent, are just able to scrape along, and 10 per cent. or less are reasonably prosperous if such a term could be used in farming. With regard to the Ncwnes shale oil proposition, the findings of this important commission should be in the hands of the Federal Government this week. _lt is generally expected that the commission will recommend a Federal and New Souih Wales Governments’ loan of approximately £lOO,OOO to any company that will agree to take up and handle the Newnes leases at a rate not exceeding four per cent, and will also rebate to such company for a term of years the excise duty, at the rate of 71d per gallon, at present levied on the production of oil. A number of prominent men both in Sydney and Melbourne have already been approached with a view to forming a company of this nature in the hope of thereby creating sufficient public confidence to enable the industry to be successfully established.”