FARMING IN N.Z.

Southland Times, Issue 23648, 25 October 1938, Page 6

FARMING IN N.Z.

Taxation And Costs Criticized

OPINION EXPRESSED BY SOUTH AFRICAN

“The trouble with farming in New Zealand seems to be that labour is so expensive and taxation so high that the farmer cannot afford the improvements needed on his farm. It may result in driving out a lot of people with experience and all the knowledge of New Zealand behind them; if I were a young man on the land with any ambition !• certainly would not stay here,” said a farmer from Cape Province, South Africa, Mr C. M. Hart, who has been travelling round New Zealand observing farming conditions, in an interview with The Press, Christchurch. He compared the lot of the New Zealand farmer with that of those in South Africa, expressing the view that farming conditions in New Zealand at present offered little attraction and compared very unfavourably with those in South Africa. He praised the New Zealand Corriedale sheep, however, and said that he intended to make purchases for So'uth Africa. “I don’t think the present form of Government in New Zealand is suitable to the farmer in any way,” he said. “For a young country like New Zealand, with a pastoral background, it is quite wrong that the farmer should have to face such unfavourable conditions. The taxation and high labour costs reduce his net income so that he cannot improve his farm in the way he should by buying new bloodstock and machinery and building the necessary sheds and outbuildings. They haven’t got the money to pay*for these things. “CONDITIONS TOO HARD” “The proportion of net income to gross income is far too low. The net income in proportion to gross income in South Africa is probably 50 per cent, higher than it is here. I have known of men who went abroad from New Zealand for training, and were advised by their friends not to come back to New Zealand to take up farming, as conditions were too hard on the farmer. Yet New Zealand is a wonderful country for concentrated farming—far better than South Africa.” Mr Hart said that South Africa had, of course, the advantage of cheap native labour. Machinery was not used to such an extent as in New Zealand, as the natives were not mechanically minded, and did their work without it. But he had seen several fine farms in the Dominion that should be making an income of'from £5OOO to £6OOO a year and yet were unable to pay for improvements because of the way their net income was reduced.

“There is nothing like the Government regulation and control of prices in South Africa that there is in New Zealand,” he said. “The Government there is an agricultural one and helps the farmer, but when there was a movement on foot some time ago to ration the wool market and regulate the prices there was a hue and cry, and the idea met with strong opposition. There seems to be a similar idea coming up here, but I can only hope it won’t go through. You can’t have any wool-producing country trying to set a standard when it is in competition with the rest of the world. Buyers will only go elsewhere. “There are not enough young people going on to the land in New Zealand,” he added. “They are all going into the city, where wages are high and the unions are strong, and they get all they want. There seem to be many young men working on the roads for the Public Works Department, who are stuck out in the country and cannot get any opportunity for education. They are paid well, and physically the work is good for them, but not mentally. There should be many more young people going on to the land. I really don’t know where New Zealand is getting at this rate.” ' TOP-DRESSING CRITICIZED Asked, what he thought of the prac—tice of top-dressing on New Zealand farms, Mr Hart said that he thought heavy top-dressing seemed wrong in a young country. “I don’t know where it will land them,” he said. “England and Denmark, particularly Denmark, have found that top -dressing has to become heavier and heavier. It takes too much out of the land, and its use is like robbing the son to pay the father, as the effects will be felt in later generations. Some farmers who have looked into the matter have taken to top-dressing lightly, but the average farmer does not think too much of the future.”

Mr Hart intends to purchase some Corriedales while in New Zealand. “Your Corriedales are a very fine type of sheep,” he said, “and I think they would be very suitable for South African conditions. A . good number of Corriedales have been sent over from Australia, and they are getting a wonderful reception. But your Corriedales are a better sheep; you have lagged behind in export to South Africa, although you have sent a large number to other places.” Mr Hart had high praise for the development of the roads and travel services in New Zealand and the efficient manner in which tourists were catered for. He said that there was probably not another country which, for its age and population, had developed these things so far.