FARMERS’ COSTS

Southland Times, Issue 23681, 2 December 1938, Page 8

FARMERS’ COSTS

INCREASE CAUSED BY HIGHER FREIGHTS

DEDUCTION FROM RETURNS (United, Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 1. The increase in railway freights would mean a further increase on the already heavy load of costs the farming industries were being asked to bear ana a further cut in farmers’ incomes, said Mr A P O’Shea, Dominion secretary of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, in an interview this evening. _ “It means,” said Mr O Shea, that the cost of superphosphate, for instance, will be increased, as will the cost ot other essential materials required by the farmer in his business. It also means that the extra railage costs will be deducted from the farmers returns for his wool, his fat stock and his other produce, as the increase applies also to road service freights. It simply means a general all-round increase in farm costs. This will not help us io attain the increased production which the Government is asking of ell sections of the community and, so far as the sheep farmer is concerned, the come at a very bad time. The Government should be lightening his costs and not increasing them. Transport is a fairly big item and an important one for farmers and news ot the increases will not make very P’ ant reading for them in view of the prospects of falling prices for their produce.”