DOMINION FARMS DISCUSSED

Southland Times, Issue 22915, 13 June 1936, Page 14

DOMINION FARMS DISCUSSED

Comparison With Britain LORD BLEDISLOE QUOTED The description of farming in New Zealand given by Viscount Bledisloe, at the Surveyors’ Institution must have made many a farmer listener extremely envious of the wonderful climate, producing probably the most fertile grassland in the world,. states the agricultural correspondent of The Morning Post. There are, however, many lessons to be learned frofn the information Lord Bledisloe so lucidly put before his audience. Given a soil and climate capable of producing all grassland products in rich profusion, the Government of the country has always taken whatever steps it could to help and foster the industry, both politically ana technically. Agriculture takes the first place in the Dominion’s scheme of things, with the natural result that the handicap of the vast distance from her market—Great Britain—has been largely overcome.

Excellent Marketing. Most New Zealand fanners own their holdings, the purchase of which is facilitated by a generous Government. Excellent marketing arrangements are made, whereby the New Zealand farmer has nothing else to do but to produce his foodstuffs and despatch them to the nearest depot. He thus avoids the great waste of time incurred by English farmers in attending local markets. With the incentive supplied by Government help and protection, farmers have devoted themselves to the cultivation and fertilization of their pastures to a far greater degree than in Britain—where the fear of the Government flooding us at any time with subsidized foodstuffs from abroad acts as a great deterrent to enterprise. Far less labour is employed on New Zealand farms than at home, so that the contribution which the British farmer makes to the % unemployment problem should be taken into consideration when the respective merits of the agriculture of the two countries are compared.

Question of Efficiency. Lord Bledisloe seemed to imply that the British farmer was on the whole less efficient than his New Zealand cousin, but Sir John Russell, in the discussion which followed, pointed out that notwithstanding all that had been alleged against him his output was £240,000,000 a year, against New Zea ■ land’s £40,000,000, although the two countries are about equal in area. The refusal of New Zealand to admit pedigree stock from Britain, while getting free admission of hei own meat into Britain, causes pedigree stock breeders to feel that they have a real grievance against the Dominion.

Quarantine Regulations. Owing to the time taken to ship an animal to the Antipodes, the period of incubation of foot and mouth disease would have expired before arrival. Furthermore, quarantine regulations could be so devised as to make the import perfectly safe. On the other hand the commercial breeder of cattle does not want to make it easier for a competitor to breed the splendid livestock for which we are justly famous. To sum up, it would appear, as far as grassland is concerned, that New Zealand has, indeed, a very great advantage over us, concludes the correspondent. This should make those advocates of one-sided agriculture in this country pause before endeavouring to commit us to a change from the mixed farming which the figures of output and employment show is best suited to our conditions, notwithstanding the very meagre amount of protection which has been given the industry.