FARMERS AND MATHEMATICS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21154, 29 September 1938, Page 11

FARMERS AND MATHEMATICS

To the Editor ot " The Tlmaru Herald " Sir,—The hypothesis, as applied by Mr J. C. Hay at a recent meeting of the Waimate Farmers’ Union, that the farmer must balance his budget by putting the worker on one side of the scales and his butterfat on the other, is arithmetically absurd, though it may appear to the selfish farmer as good mathematics, it is not the of the million. It is only by summing up the mathematical requirements of the people as a whole that we can arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. When we do this, when we apply mathematics to the individual and consider the requirements of each—then, and only then, can the world move on in a happier state. It is worthy of note that many farmers are breaking away from the old fallacy of cheap labour and are looking to other ways and means of securing a fair reward for their own labour. Socialism appears to be coming—coming from c. quarter from which we would least expect it—the farmers themselves. After all the complaints about the guaranteed price a great many cf these people, whether on Labour’s side or Nationalist, are asking for guaranteed prices for other commodities, while the extreme Nationalists want extreme socialism, or “realism” should it be called—the compensated price. Under this the farmer will have unlimited freedom to spend

money supplied by someone else. He can pay £lOO per acre for his land or I from £3O upwards for his cows, and, in I addition to receiving fair remuneration for his labour, he will receive “fair rate of Interest on the money invested in his stock and land.” So we’re in for a fine boom if the Nationalists are returned. As an instance how farmers i can be induced to pay exorbitant prices i for stock, I remember attending a clearing sale of stud sheep held many years ago. One of a mob of ram hoggets had been sold at 20gns a few days before the farm was disposed of. As the ram was not taken possession of for a few days, the buyer was asked to let it be put up at auction at clearing sale, being told that it might be trotted up a bit as a lead to the sale but it would be knocked down to him and net more than the price sold at previously would be charged. The ram was trotted up to and knocked down at 60gns to the original buyer. Buyers were now well worked up and the “second pick” went at 40gns and nothing under 30gns. Private enterprise! Rugged individualism! Socialism! Realism! Are we capable of being trusted with too much ready money?—l am, etc., LITTLE FARMER.