“FACED WITH DISASTER”

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1933, Page 5

“FACED WITH DISASTER”

SOUTH ISLAND FARMERS.

MORTGAGED UP TO THE HILT.

Hamilton, July 18.

That hundreds of farmers in the South Island are in grave financial difficulties owing to high productive costs and low prices in spite of heavy crop yields was the alarming'statement made by Mr. W. Boyd,of Matangi, to-day. Mr. Boyd has just returned home from a comprehensive investigation of conditions in the wheat and pastoral districts of the south. “Mountains of debt are being piled up which cannot be liquidated, and unless some form of permanent relief is forthcoming these unfortunate people and their successors will be held for all time as in a vice, in the grip of the various institutions to which they are indebted,” said Mr. Boyd. “Those fortunate enough to have reserves are living on their capital, which is vastly diminishing; but those less fortunately circumstanced are faced with disaster. “South Island conditions are peculiarly different from those in the Waikato,” Mr. Boyd added. “Crops are mortgaged before sown to the various mercantile firms, which doubtless hope to recoup themselves if and when conditions improve. The great uncertainty of the future is unmistakably wearing down the farmers, many of whom are given an altogether inadequate monthly allowance, which permits the purchase of only bare necessities. As an instance of what low prices mean to the grower, one large grain farmer in the Ashburton district informed me that he had threshed his finest crop of Garton oats, and although. these were all grade A, he could not receive a greater offer than Is. 3d. per bushel—a ruinous price. Private mortgagees are, generally speaking, meeting mortgagors to the best of their ability, but with stock and station agents the position must, for obvious reasons, be different. . “There is a growing feeling m the South Island that the policy of deflation, which ths present Government has pursued, is fundamentally unsound and should be abandoned. “The political outlook there is uncertain. Many farmers are afraid to come out into the open, and prefer, for very good reasons, to keep their political J views to themselves.