The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." MONDAY, MAY 21,1923. WHERE MONEY SHOULD GO

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18786, 21 May 1923, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." MONDAY, MAY 21,1923. WHERE MONEY SHOULD GO

The prosperity of this country definitely depends upon rural pursuits, and to strangle that stream of private mortgage money necessary to the development of the country by criticism based upon incomplete knowledge is certain to have a boomerang effect upon production and upon the investing public. In other words, the limitation of capital investment in rural securities is bad and harmful to the whole country. Alive to this fact, and with the knowledge that recent criticism of the value of dairying land in this dominion has actually prevented the investment of capital in such lands, to the detriment of large numbers of experienced farmers working upon sane values, Mr W. Goodfellow, Managing Director of the N.Z. Co-operative Dairying Company, has rendered a national service by the compilation in pamphlet form of a clear and comprehensive statement demonstrative of the real measure of land values in this Dominion. We ail know that the boom prices were too high as a permanent level—just as they were too in residential areas and merchants’ stocks—but, Mr Goodfellow calls upon those interested to realise that the swing of the pendulum can go too far in the other direction, and work definite harm to men not affected by boom prices but working upon sane values. What is required at the present time, he says, is a sane middle course between unduly inflated prices aud ridiculously low ones. Of the 8000 dairy farmers iu the South Auckland province, possibly 10 per cent, or 800 were seriously affected by the boom figures. The other 90 per cent, have purchased their farms upon a reasonable basis. Of this 10 per cent, of boom victims some have already failed; some have secured adjustments from their mortgages; others await the final closure from mortgagees who, themselves farmers, are content to take back their property. This process of re-adjustment in connection with that 10 per cent, of the farming community is practically speaking completed. Some borderline cases have yet to be adjusted but on broad lines the time has now come when attention may be turned from the victims of the boom to the needs of the 90 per cent of farmers unaffected by excessive land values. Old-time mortgages given by these men either require renewal or readjustment to permit of further deveP opinent. New capital is required by others who are widening the circle of production and bringing in new land. It is vital from the community point of view that capital shall be available to them. But because of the undue concentration of attention upon victims of the boom, combined with arbitrary and unjustified declarations as to what the value of land should be by men without a practical acquaintance with the position, such mortgage money as is available for investment is being frightened away from rural securities. The inevitable result of this will be to throw a greater burden upon our banking institutions. Mr Goodfellow 1 suggests that the better course at the present time would be to encourage, as far as possible, private mortgagees to come forward and invest in rural securities. But if farmers want money to be available for farm .securities they must make the proposition-attractive; they must show the lender that they can pay interest on reasonable values —that they are thriving and not starving; that the future is bright and not black, and that their securities are going to appreciate as time goes on. This, he rightly says, is the only way capital can be at- i traded toward farm securities and so permit normal development to go forward. But he warns the community | that the necessary capital will be obtainable “never and nowhere” so long as supposed friends of the farmer combine on the one hand to abuse the mortgagee and on the other to persist in telling him that the men who want his money are such poor farmers that they cannot farm successfully at more than £lO an acre. Mr Goodfellow’s point is that while, it is wrong to boost land to an unduly high figure, it is equally harmful to endeavour to depress values below a fair standard. Now that the aftermath is in process

I of being finalised, this well-known authority on the dairying industry urges that the universal endeavour should be to promote the ordinary legitimate development of farming on a reasonable basis. Mr Goodfellow expresses the confident opinion that if fanners will endeavour to demonstrate their real security .upon a permanent basis then such investments will be sought, interest will drop, production increase and general trade be stimulated. It is to the interest of the l cities to achieve this end, as much as it is to that of the countryside, because the economic life of the Dominion is unquestionably based upon rural prosperity. Bricks and morttar in cities will speedily lose their value unless a steady stream of production from the country provides trade to maintain city life. By investing in broad acres and allowing farm improvements to be effected and new areas brought in, continued and increased production is assured, and it is this production which guarantees prosperity for both the city and the country. The price of farm land Mere,

as elsewhere, is generally based on what returns can be obtained from it, upon its attractions and advantages. Where in England, for instance, can farm land be found that will produce the same amount of butter-fat per acre with the same amount of labour as in various parts of New Zealand? Where in England can the same number of lambs or sheep be fattened on the same area with the same amount of expenditure as in this country? It would be only reasonable to expect that in view of its fertile soils and its splendid climate, in view, too, of the high organisation reached in the dairying and frozen meat industries, that land in New Zealand should be desirable enough to command a high price. But Mr Goodfellow claims that, gener ally speaking, land of the same productive capacity and possessing the same situation regarding roads, railways, and towns without possessing such advantageous climatic conditions is averagely dearer in Australia, Canada, and America than it is in New Zealand, and the same thing holds good with regard to Great Britain. He has no hesitation in saying that the 40,600,000 acres of unimproved land in the Dominion offers at the present time a better investment for the employment of capital and labour than most lands now available for settlement in any other country, and not only does it offer better monetary returns, but possesses infinitely greater attractions in the shape of social conditions., health, natural beauties, and potentialities for future improvements and increased production.