HOW TO SAVE THE BRITISH FARMER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4774, 14 October 1893, Page 3

HOW TO SAVE THE BRITISH FARMER.

Professor James Long, writing in the Fortnightly Review upon the deluge of foreign produce on the British farmer, discusses and condemns the proposals that have been made for saving the farmer from the ruin wrought by foreign competition. This number is only by way of leading up to his own scheme, which is as follows : — What, then, do we propose in order to place tenant farmers on advantageous terms and enable them to meet the growing , competition ? . • . • 1. Permanent reductions of rent. The landlord must share the newly-acquired burdens. 2. A comprehensive Land Bill. 3. Stringent laws prohibiting the adulteration of milk, butter and cheese, cattle foods and manures, and the sale of imported as Britieh meat. 4. Prohibition of the use of sugar in the manufacture of beer. 5. Prohibition of the Bale of imported fresh milk. 6. Control of the grea'c markets through the medium of which the producer is systematically defrauded. Firßt, with regard to a Land Bill. We define the heads of such a bill as follows :— 1. Fixity of tenure. 2. The 'absolute right to make and sell improvements without the necessity of obtaining permission. Valuers should be required to inspect every farm and record its condition before a tenant eaters. 3. Fixed rent for a given term ol years. 4. Freedom of cultivation and sale of produce. 5. Amendment of the Ground Game Act. 6. Abolition of the law of distress. We must, however, soon look still farther ahead. Large, farm's are a mieiake. In seasons like the present and the past farmers are helpless, because of the magnitude of the land they occupy. With onequarter the acreage remedial measures would be possible, failure of crops almost | impossible, if the same capital were expended in stock and manures. Our experience of smalj farming in the best cropped districts 'of the ' best farming countriea in the world is that the fewer the j acreß the heavier the crops. We therefore i hold the opinion that in the future— and the change will take place by degrees— ; small farming will hold the field in this country. No farming, however, can succeed so long as produce cannot be marketed successfully, and at this moment the unhealthiness of the London markets, in particular, is a disgrace to our civilisation. We have, in turn, been, personally defrauded in the sale of meat (live and dead), butter, eggs, and vegetables— and there is no remedy. , Such, then, is our case. Competition will continue, will increase, and our experience leads us to believe that no less than the programme we have sketched will suffice to enable the farmer to successfully meet it. '