VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1935, Page 9

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

VIEWS ON CURRENT TOPICS THE DAIRY FARMERS’ POSITION, SUGGESTIONS AS TO A CURE. ■■• ’ (To the Editor.) X Sir,—As things are at present, one cannot help wishing that one’s town friends could understand a Ijttle more clearly just what is the matter with the dairy- f ing industry. I wonder if I am capable of explaining in such a way that they may understand. With your kind permission, I mean to try. If a manufacturer produced an article,

in large quantities, which cost .him Is to make, and sold it at Bd, it is quite clear that his concern could last for only a limited time. If he went on doing that over a period of, say, five years, it' really looks so mad, I hesitate to suggest that he would do it. ’ Yet that is what the dairy farmers have been compelled to do, for several years, and what they, seem to have every prospect of continuing tp do. Hence these tears. • ’ i People who have no. experience qf fanping, even at second-hand, perhaps do hot realise that money has to be spent in a definite proportion to production, before butter, cheese or milk can reach the consumer. In Taranaki (my own experience is'confined to Taranaki) quite, a solid amount has to oe spent every year on . fertilisers, which serve to contribute to the nutritive value in the pastures, and to liberate chemicals in the soil which would otherwise lie ’ dormant For the Taranaki farmer, fertilisers are. definitely expensive. Then there is the upkeep of the herd, replace!ment, and, throughout the last, ten years, increase in numbers, 'wherever. possible. There are, in many cases, the. milking x machine and separator to be installed, renewed, or maintained, power, repairs, etc., constitute periodical expenses. Where this machinery is not used, more labour has to be provided, either unpaid, or otherwise. There are implements to buy and replace, seeds for pasture and winter feed, fencing and farm buildings to maintain. These are perennial - expenses, and I have mentioned only the most obvious. The farmer’s living expenses, which have to be found out of the price he receives for his produce, you will notice I have not placed on the list. I wonder if this is clear enough to be striking. I wish it could be. Just remember that Is and the Bd, which are close enough to fact to serve. Pepple keep on suggesting remedies for the present financial muddle and deadlock. Most of them presuppose a more or less perfect spirit of democracy. That spirit is in its early infancy in New Zealand, so that remedies which depend op a full-grown democratic consciousness are distinctly premature. Any remedy that has to be applied at the . moment must be applied under conditions as they x are The. remedy in itself is then a stepin’ the. direction' of reform.. I scarcely dare to mention that I am going to suggest a remedy, but with courage in one hand, and a’pen in the other, I will do so. ■' ■!'. The state (that is,' the citizens of . New Zealand) is contributing to the support ~ of those citizens who, through no fault of their own, are unable to obtain sufficient remunerative employment Farmers, up to their ears in debt are contributing to this fund. Many farmers’ families are on, if not over, the border line beyond which lies destitution. The fact that they can continue in, their present sphere is due only to the leniency of some of 'their fellow, citizens, and the generosity of others. . This . has come about through no fault of their own, but through the type of marketing I described above, of cost andretum inequality. And moreover these men are working from morning to night, seven, or at least six days in the week. ; My remedy is • that the State' should subsidise the dairy farmers, for a period, . in every possible direction. I can hear the derisive snort, or shout of laughter that goes up, but wait a minute. The popular idea is that such a subsidy would go “into the pockets of the farmers.” I can explode that once for all. The farmers have *no pockets. These were ripped and worn out of their garments - long ago. The money will go straight through the resulting chasms into—or through, if you like—the hands of mortgage holders, landlords, stock agents, farm machinery merchants, fertiliser companies, railroad and motor transport concerns, doctors, hospital boards, local bodies. And last, but not least, though - it Should in my opinion be first, it will go into the hands of the tradespeople who provide the farmers’ families with the necessaries of life. Now, wouldn’t it work, Mr. Editor?

A great many of the dairy farmers are in an agony of debt, and even the freehold and'more monied farmers, are feeling anxious. Would they not all rush to put money into circulation, thereby producing employment and prosperity in practically every branch of industry? , Money has lost its essential character, which was that it should be simply a means of representing value of goods dr service, in* a convenient form, for the purpose of exchange. It has become — among other things—practically the very means of subsistence. And it is in that character that we now have to consider and deal with it. If legislation could not be brought in to carry out some plan such as I suggest, then I would ask the State to make it compulsory for all citizens who have money lying, . .idle in banks, to take a. certain proportion of that money and-put it into Wage-paying concerns, .or into subsidies?for farmers, thus bringing it into circulation. The dairy farmers are compelled by law to carry on their work with certain equipment which costs money; but I do not notice that there is ariy provision by law that the returns from the dairying industry shall be such that the farmer can conform to 'these regulations without getting hopelessly into" debt. We are suffering from a . sort of financial cramp of 'the vital organs?, of the body politic, while a life-giving .stream of potential community prosperity is dammed up in the banksi—l am, etc., HELEN HARRIS. Oakura, Mey 10. /.