FARMING COSTS

Southland Times, Issue 22993, 12 September 1936, Page 8

FARMING COSTS

INTEREST RATE A BURDEN MR DENHAM’S VIEW (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, September 11. Surprise that members of the Opposition, while protesting about the increased costs in farming, had raised no objection to the high proportion of costs represented by interest was expressed by Mr W. M. C. Denham (Lab., Invercargill) during the second reading debate on the Mortgagors’ and Lessees’ Rehabilitation Bill in the House of Representatives to-day. “I cannot understand the attitude of the Opposition,” Mr Denham said. “Its members have been criticizing all our new labour legislation as tending to increase the costs of farming, among other industries. They have strongly criticized any move toward increasing farm wages because higher wages represent an increase in costs, yet no member of the Opposition has raised his voice against the burden of debt which the farmer has to put up with.” Mr Denham admitted there had been a rise in the farmer’s costs through the recent rise in the cost of living which affected the farmer just as much as others. He quoted the recentlypublished cost of living index figures and when asked by Mr S. G Holland (Nat., Christchurch North) whether the increases would be as high as 10 per cent, agreed that that was approximately the figure. Mr Denham added that the Government would tackle the problem of rising costs although it was a big one. Already action had been taken to check the exploiter.