Farming Difficulties in New [Zealand.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, 3 December 1887, Page 4

Farming Difficulties in New [Zealand.

A Scotch agricultural journal publishes an extract from tho letter of a recent settler in New Zealand to a friend in Edinburgh, which we reproduce below; for although with regard to one or two points, with reference to the question of a\ holesale and retail price?, his remarks are somewhat misleading, on the whole the writer points out a good many matters which urgently call for the attention of reforming spirits in the interests of the agricultural and pastoral development of this fine country. He says :— ]lO\V I ARM PRODUCE IS MAIIKKTKD. In the Cape Colony when a Dutch farmer wants to come to town with produce, he inspans his oxen and sets out. His journey may take seveial days ; but as he carries his food with him and sloops in his waggon, while his oxen feed in the veld, Tie is nothing out of pocket Here it is quite different, for many miles around the town of Auckland the roads aie foneed, and it would be impossible for oxen to iind their food by tho way side as they do in the Cape, so that the only way open to the producer is tho railway or the steamer, as the ca&e maybe. lie has to con.'iL'n hi.s produce to s r mo agent in the city, for if ho weie to come it) himself his fare— and railway fares hoio are pietty .stiff — would eat up all his profit?. In tho Capo the Kumcr, except in some case;, comes in diivci communication with the consumer on tho moi ning market. Here, as I have said, his pioduce is consigned to somo city agent. It is taken to the pale-ioom and put up m a lump, and is knocked down to ?ome whole-ale buyer for a moi e trifle. Thi-> is bad enough, but there is moi oto follow. Tho agent now makes out his bill of charges, and, after the commission, storage, etc , etc., have been paid, the fanner think? himself fortunate if ho oofs a few shillings for wlml, had he been able to biiug ifc into tho market him self, would ha\e brought him se\eral pound.s.

Tl\ll/\VAY K\Tl>. Railway charges a.c executive, and the milv. ay is grosbly mis-managed. I read about a man who &cnt a quantity of applf*. 5 into the nidikut. They wore scld, and all ho got icr his trouble vab a bill for commission amounting to 17s. lie would have s»a\ of I t!ii<» and had hi* apples for his own use had he r-ot .sent them to tow a.

THE UNIORTUNATU MIODLKMAN. Undoubtedly prices' re \ cry low, but if fanuois only got whaG cons-i'iners have to pay they wou'd be peifecty satisfied. It i- the middleman who comes in and eats up the profit*. The niiddlemui is a great bugbear in many coun'rk's., and I think in none more than in New Zealand. He and the tax collectors keep the fanner's nose on the grindstone. He does not care w het her the farmer gets a fair return or not, and puts up his produce, as I have said, in wholesale quantities. Walking down Queen-street in Auckland the other day I noticed the following advertisement at the door of a salesman: — 'For silo 2 tons of Tauranga cheese.' A quantity like this could not be expected to fetch such a high piico as a email lot, and it would be knocked down at perhaps 2d per lb., if not less. Just fancy first clas* cheese going tor 2hd per lb. When retailed the same cheese would fetch perhaps 5d per lb. Thus you see the retail dealer gets about 2.^d, while the auctioneer, the agent, and the railway take a big slice ot the 2^d which ought to go to the farmer. This is no exaggerated case, and if I had time I could mention scores of case^ where the farmer had to pay away moie than he got It c eoms io me that the editor of one of the Auckland papers hib the nail on the head when he said that the re me ly lay with the farmers themselves, and that they would vety much improve their condition if they united to put down this army of non-producing middlemen who fatten on their labours. I know of a cheese factory which gives farmeis the magnificent sum of 3d per gallon for their milk. There is a freezing company in Auckland which buys up the farmers' butter, freezes it, and rctai's it. They give about 4d per lb., and have been known to give as little as did, while they seldom sell it for less than Is. Thus about 3^d goes to the farmer and Shd to the middlemen. Yet what can the farmers do in the present state of affairs? They ought to band thomsehes together a? the Dutch with the Afrikander Bond did at the Cape, but ior a better object, viz., rofoirn in railway management and in the management of affairs generally, ers were ticketed 5d., and the legs 7d. The legs were large in proportion to the other joints, which is further proof that the sheep were well grown, whatever may have been the colour of their faces.