REDUCED COSTS BEST SOLUTION

Southland Times, Issue 23840, 10 June 1939, Page 12

REDUCED COSTS BEST SOLUTION

FARMERS’ PROBLEMS

“TEMPORARY EXPEDIENTS” OF NO VALUE

The view that the various methods for assisting the farming community that had been suggested in recent months were only temporary expedients and that reduced costs and consequently more economic farming was the best solution, was expressed by the chairman (Mr A. C. Cameron) at the annual meeting in Dunedin on Thursday morning of the Otago and Southland Council of the Federation of New Zealand Young Farmers’ Clubs. “The young farmers’ movement should not touch on any subject savouring of party politics,said Mr Cameron, moving the adoption of the annual report and balance-sheet, “but I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my views as chairman, on' the present economic situation. FOUR SUGGESTIONS “At the present time, _ certain classes of farmers are right up against it,” Mr Cameron said, and it is evident that if the land they are farming is to be kept in production, they must receive some assistance. It is not my purpose to discuss the relative merits of the form that assistance should take. Various recommendations have been made to the powers that be along one or other of the following lines: That costs be reduced drastically; that the exchange rate be allowed to rise to its natural level, a level which is estimated to be somewhere in the vicinity of 10 to 60 per cent, above par;' that direct subsidies be given to certain classes of producers; and that a guaranteed price be fixed for meat and wool, this price to be sufficiently high to prove of definite assistance to producers. Some of these recommendations possess a certain amount of merit and it may be necessary to give effect to one or other of them if agriculture in New Zealand is to be saved from a severe set-back. “Most of us, however, realize that apart from a reduction in costs all such recommendations must' only prove temporary expedients,” Mr Cameron continued, “and the real, problem can only be solved by getting down costs, or in other words, farming more economically. This means the application of scientific knowledge to farming and the study of every problem which involves a percentage of loss. “If, for instance, farmers can reduce their loss ratio in lambs by a study or knowledge of the causes of such losses,” said Mr Cameron; “if they can increase the yield of wheat or oats to the acre by the application of scientific knowledge; if by the use of more modern methods of tillage or top-dressing waste effort can be reduced to a minimum; if by the application of business management to farming greater efficiency can be obtained, then the tendency of this must be in the direction of reduced costs.”

Mr Cameron made the qualification that the foregoing assumption could only apply provided the cost ‘of reducing the mortality either in stock or in crop, or increasing the yield did not cost more than the benefit gained. “It is in this direction that the work of the Young Farmers’ Clubs can be of definite assistance,” he concluded. “Scientific knowledge is never static. New developments are constantly taking place, and it is difficult enough for the more alert minded to keep pace with these developments. In my opinion, the young farmer of today, who is to be the farmer of tomorrow, cannot afford to neglect keeping pace with modern developments, and I consider that the young farmers’ club is the best medium through which this can be done.” PROBLEMS OF SHEEP OWNERS DISCUSSED ANNUAL MEETING OF UNION The annual meeting of the Otago and Southland Sheep Owners’ Industrial Union of Employers was held in Dunedin on Thursday morning in the board room of the secretary (Mr A. S. Cookson). The president (Mr James Begg) was in the chair, and there was a very representative attendance of members. The annual report, which dealt fully with the activities of the union during the year, and the balance-sheet were adopted. The election of officers resulted as follows: President, Mr James Begg; vice-president, Mr W. 0. McKellar; committee, Messrs J. Andrew, J. C. Begg, F. D. Bell, D. H. Cockburn, D. Finlayson, J. S. Hazlett, A. S. Holms, Dickson Jardine, G. M. Love, W. J. A. McGregor, John MacKenzie. J. McK. Morgan, D. Marshall, A. McKinnon, A. C. Nichols, W. J. Reid, J. A. Roberts, John M. Rose, W. A. Scaife, W. S. Thomson, Allan Speight. The meeting discussed various problems which confronted the industry at the present time, and verv long consideration was given to its economic position. Resolutions were passed protesting against the burden of the replenishment of the sterling funds being placed upon the exporters by the commandeer of the sterling proceeds of produce. A second resolution was passed to the effect that if the Government found the commandeer of sterling funds to be necessary a full market equivalent in New Zealand currency should be returned to the exporter. Such equivalent could only be ascertained by the bank fixing the exchange rate at a point where supply and demand balanced. The question of guaranteed prices for wool and meat was also discussed, and the meeting was unanimous in opposition to the institution of any form of control by the Government of these commodities. General discussions took place on a number of other points of interest to the sheep-growing industry.