Stratford Evening Post THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1930. THE FARMER’S PROBLEM.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 67, 16 October 1930, Page 4

Stratford Evening Post THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1930. THE FARMER’S PROBLEM.

WITH butter selling' in London at. a price equal to about Hid. per lb. f.o.b. Hew Zealand ports and with cheese at about sid., it is not difficult for anybody to realise that dairy farmers who bought land at boom prices are in a serious financial position, from which there appears to be no immediate means of escape. Some people urge that if wages were reduced and the necessaries which the farmer has to buy were reduced in price the position would soon improve fsavs the Wanganui Herald), but we are inclined to think that the greatest difficulty facing the majority of farmers is the heavy bill for interest which becomes, due on mortgages at regular intervals. The prices at which farm lands changed hands during the boom period were absurdly high and farmers failed to realise that in buying land they should have analysed very carefully the price in relationship to productive capacity and the fact that the high prices for produce were bound to come to an end. Many farmers undertook the responsibility of heavy mortgages in the boom period at high rates of interest, and. with prices at their present low level and with no prospect of any substantial improvement, they are now in an impossible position. They are called upon to buy their goods at inflated prices and to pay boom period rates of interest while their produce is selling at pre-war rates: in fact., the returns per lb. aye less than the pre-war figures if allowance he made for the depreciated purchasing power of nionev the purchasing power of Uhl. P<n lb being received bv the farmer for butter is sonmwbere about Bd., so that the fanner is Hr worse off than may be generally recognised. The problem is a most difficult one., for unless > is solved satisfactorily IV whole community must snftei m directly.