Optimism Among Auckland Farmers

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 93, 11 July 1927, Page 9

Optimism Among Auckland Farmers

TOUR OF PROVINCE CHEERFUL RURAL OUTLOOK TALK of depression has not * shaded the optimism of country merchants and farmers in the Auckland Province, according to Mr. Albert Spencer, president of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association, who has iust spent a month on a tour of 'the extensive district the association represents. He visited 25 towns north and south of Auckland, and w ? s delighted to find that an optimistic outlook is held by both town and country dwellers. In a review of the impressions he gathered during his visits, which were for the purpose of giving employers throughout the province the latest information concerning awards and other matters. Mr. Spencer said this morning that the settlement of the dairy control controversy appeared to have heartened farmers. They looked to the future with renewed confidence. Dairy farmers and the representatives of the dairy companies. now seemed agreed in the view that the greater production, better marketing methods, and improvement of the standards of the herds would show the way to greater returns without recourse to doubtful price-fixing experiments. In other directions there were possibilities almost unsuspected by the city dweller in the fertile fields of the Auckland Province. In the North of Auckland Mr. Spencer encountered one man who last season took £3OO worth of passion fruit off two acres of land.

Other men were doing exceptionally well with early potatoes, grown under favourable conditions. ON THE UP-GRADE “A great many farmers and business people whom I met,” said Mr. Spencer, “expressed the view that things are on the up-grade. The prospects for the coming season are bright, and a general feeling of optimism prevails.” Referring to overseas conditions, he remarked on the industrial recovery in England, where mines were now working full time, and yielding a greater output than before the war. The employment of 300,000 additional miners was a clear indication that the longer day of eight hours was beneficial to the industry. Shipbuilding, too, had made a notable recovery. New Zealand was bound to reap the results of the renewed prosperity in England. In the Auckland Province the reduced price of fertiliser was bound to have a beneficial effect. Farmers were now able to buy more of that necessary commodity, and were carrying out operations on a scale that would result for certain, in increased production. In consequence, New Zealand would outstrip her Continental competitors as a producer of butter and cheese. Improved methods of cultivating and dressing flax, and the buoyancy of the wool trade, were further factors which Mr. Spencer thought justified a tone of general optimism in both city and country.