Hard Times.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2045, 21 March 1887, Page 2

Hard Times.

To the Editor of the Standard.

Sie, —The paragraph in your issue of Monday last, referring to the hard times farmers are at present undergoing, though correct to a certain extent, seems to me to hardly realise the true causes of the present deplorable state of affairs.

On first thoughts, many attribute the evil to the protracted drought. That sir, though somewhat intensifying matters, is, after all, an insignificant factor in the account as, had we experienced but a fairly average aeasm, wo should have had such a vastly increased volume of produce, that the difficulty of sale would have been still farther augmented. Sir ; not the drought, but want of a market, combined with excessive valuation of land, by means of which exorbitant rates are wrung from occupiers of land, the constant drain of money sent away to meet interest on public and private debts. Our whole system is to blame.

When we know of frozen mutton being sold at a price so low as to cause a positive loss, or only sufficient to net five or six shillings for prime wethers ; when butter is only worth four or fiv«penca per pound ; when beef is at 10s per lOOlbs, and all other produce at similar rates, it is certain that land is overrated at from £lO to £ls per acre. The price of produce must rule the value of laud, which at present and for some time past, ought not to have been more than from £3 to £5 for grazing and agricultural purposes.

We compete in distance at great disadvantage with other countries and are so utterly at the mercy of shipping companies, commission agents, self styled merchants, and sharpies of every description, that it is hard to know bow we are to be extricated from our position. It is idle to flatter ourselves with fables about our wonderful resources any longer. We have, no doubt, great resources, but to what avail, when only developed at a loss. To meet our position, the price of land and labor must, iu the first instance, be very much lower and the waste incurred in Government expenditure be stopped. We must learn to live without many of the luxuries of civilised life, and live as our pioneer set* Hers did. When necessary, we moat ford a river, or wait, if it is up, till it goes down. Railways, bridges, roads are no doubt great conveniences and open up country, but can we at present afford them, or is the country worth opening up just now. Hoping my ideas, though no doubt, distasteful to many, may be the means ot drawing attention to our true position, I am, &c., W.J.C.