The Southland Times SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1939. The Farmer And The Community

Southland Times, Issue 23840, 10 June 1939, Page 6

The Southland Times SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1939. The Farmer And The Community

THERE is a tendency in New Zealand to hear the complaints of farmers with a touch of scepticism. Many persons who examine every new question of political or industrial interest with the closest attention are inclined to be “headline readers” when it comes to the problems of primary production and overseas markets. They skim the reports of Farmers Union meetings, glance cursorily at the latest statements by the union’s leaders and decide to their own satisfaction that things are probably much better than they seem. This is an attitude which survives from the expansive days when a man who had the necessary capital and experience could take over a good property, work it diligently for a number of years and then retire in early middle age with the prospect of living comfortably on his investments. How far these conditions applied to more than a. fortunate minority is an open question. It is true that farmers in the past have profited from high prices, protected and expanding markets, and £he richness of their soil. But now the situation has changed. The depression proved that most land values .in New Zealand were inflated. Price collapses in the London market brought many farmers to the verge of bankruptcy (too many, indeed, were forced to leave their holdings) and caused an increase in borrowing which in a number of cases must have nullified the benefits of improved prices in the last few years and made it harder to withstand the pressure of rising costs under the Labour regime. At the same time the shortage of skilled farm labour, intensified by the Government’s public works policy and by the accent on industrial expansion, has caused a decline in production. There are signs that the period of high prices is coming to an end, and that in the next few seasons export values will be appreciably lower, even though there is no reason to anticipate a catastrophic fall of the kind which weakened the country’s economy during the slump.