The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1930. AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 August 1930, Page 10

The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1930. AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS.

So great is the interest taken byprimary producers throughout the Empire that the views recently expressed by Mr. Stanley Baldwin concerning the agricultural policy of the British Conservative Party, of which he is the head, are of too much importance to pass over without comment. That is not to say, however, that the policy outlined by him in Suffolk will commend itself to overseas farmers and others entirely, but the subject is one upon which there is something to be learned even from pronouncements open to criticism. There are fundamental differences between the economics of the farm and those of the factories, though the basic principles of both are derived from a common origin. It is well known that the policy of the Old Country Conservatives relative to fostering secondary industries is to grapple with the great problem by safeguarding, which, if successful, leads to increased output resulting in less overhead charges. There is, however, claims Mr. Baldwin, no analogy with farming, because no safeguarding that can be devised can give the farmer two crops a year or make cows calve twice a year. Mr. Baldwin does not include wheatgrowing in the category of farming that bears no analogy to the safeguarding of secondary industries. When, he asserts that what the farmer wants is remunerative prices he stands on unassailable ground, for that want is common to all industrialists, as well as to humanity in general. How are these remunerative prices to be obtained in these days, when there is such keen competition in the available markets, under such vastly different producing conditions, which favour a low standard of living? The primary producers of the Dominions have to transport their commodities over many thousands of miles of ocean highways and, in the end, must accept the ruling market values, so that the only possible means they have of obtaining a reasonable margin of profit is to increase production and deecrease its cost. Neither safeguarding nor protection will serve the purpose of the overseas exporters, and only an adequate measure of preference can be effective. It is interesting to find that in this connection Mr. Baldwin was up against the conflicting interests of the British producers and consumers, and the only argument he could raise was that with a system of safeguarding secondary industries the country would be able' to obtain fresh revenue, and it would be only fair that some of that revenue should be used to benefit agriculture in the only way in which that industry could be benefited. It has to be remembered that Britain’s key to the situation in lies in wheat, hence Mr. Baldwin asserts that if the country can recover even a portion of its old wheat acreage, theen its whole farming system can be put on to a sounder basis, thus indirectly helping the dairy farmer, the grower of oats and the grower of potatoes. Obviously such a contention led to a declaration by Mr. Baldwin that the first thing forzthe Conservative Party to do on coming into office would be to fix a guaranteed price for wheat of milling quality, that price being sufficient to enable wheat to be produced remuneratively on ordinary wheat land. Naturally the Conservative leader did not venture to name a price, and all who know the temper of the people of the Old Country on this matter of the price of bread will, without doubt, consider that the hopes of the Conservatives. for another tenure of office will stand a small chance of coming to frui! ion if Mr. Baldwin’s wheat r . owing bounty affects the price of the staff of life. Moreover, the aim of the Socialists is to obtain an Import Board in order to buy food essentials direct'from overseas producers, so there may be in existence before long all the elements making for a mighty upheaval of the forces of free trade, protection and safeguarding. How will the producers of the Dominions fare in such a crisis? Their interests are completely ignored or perhaps it would be more charitable to say they were quite apart from the main theme of the subject. The controversy in New Zealand over the subsidising of wheat-growing and its consequent hardship on the people might have warned Mr. Baldwin of the danger of his policy—a policy that was to hold good for a period of years, and to be made so firm that 'it would ’ e almost impossible for any Government to interfere with it in the future. As to the manner in which such a policy would affect interEmpire trade and co-operation only experience can tell. Time [enough for that when the electors ■ register their decision.