THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. TUESDAY, 26th JULY, 1932. ENCOURAGE SMALL FARMING.

Waipa Post, Volume 45, Issue 3208, 26 July 1932, Page 4

THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. TUESDAY, 26th JULY, 1932. ENCOURAGE SMALL FARMING.

IN a Parliamentary report published in 1930 the Unemployment Committee of which Sir W. D. Hunt was chairman, devoted considerable space to the question of building up the pig and poultiy industries as a means of encouraging small farming. The facts then set out have apparently made some impression, for a committee is now at work examining the various aspects of the pig industry with a view to expanding the export trade. In 1927 Britain imported from various countries pig products to the value of nearly 56i millions sterling. In this huge trade Denmark participated to the tune of some £30,000,000. New Zealand's share was £333,381. There is here ample room for expansion. The same applies to the poultry industry. British imports of poultry products in the same year were valued at £22,000,000, of which the Empire supplied less than onehalf per cent. Climatically the advantages are all in our favour. We have large resources in the dairy industry for the supply of rations for pigs and poultry if these were fully exploited. There remains, however, one stumbling-block, the cost G± stock-food grain. All grains and fodders enter Denmark duty free. In New Zealand the high protection which shelters the wheat-growers places a heavy handicap on the pig and poultry industries. It is time this handicap was removed. The interests of one small protected industry should no longer be allowed to cripple others with such excellent prospects of promoting small farming on an extensive scale and building up a large and prosperous export trade.