FARMERS NOT ENTHUSIASTIC

Southland Times, Issue 24593, 15 November 1941, Page 6

FARMERS NOT ENTHUSIASTIC

Appeal To Grow More Potatoes (Special) DUNEDIN, Nov. 14. The appeal by the Government for the planting of a larger area in potatoes to meet a possible shortage next year is not being received with any great enthusiasm in farming circles. One farmer said when discussing the appeal: “The Government cannot have it both ways.” The war, he said, had interfered with the supply of farm labour and in addition attractive wages were being paid in the cities for more or less unskilled labour on a 40-hour week had helped to dry up the supplies of labour which would have been available for farm work.

Farmers, he added, could not as a consequence cope with routine work on their properties and were now turning their- attention more to sowing their land in pasture. This diversion had caused a heavy demand fox- grass seeds and it did not appear likely that there would be any change in the position while the war lasted; in fact, it seemed that the farm labour problem would become progressively worse. Another factor that accentuated the position, said the farmer, was that if a L.rmer had perforce to work long hours, and some of them worked very long hours, his extra return had to beax- either the excess profit tax or other taxation. Tliat aspect of the position, combined with the labour problem, did not offer much inducement to farmers to respond to the Government’s appeal.