FARMING IN DOMINION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19730, 27 December 1926, Page 10

FARMING IN DOMINION

NUMBER OF HOLDINGS CCMPABATIVE FIGUBES. • In the statistical report on the agricultural and pastoral production of the Dominion of New Zealand, just issued by the Census and Statistics Office., the Government Statistician has compiled a volume of which every farmer, in fact every New Zealander, should buy a copy. It is informative thought in some places hard reading, at the same time not so hard as cross-word puzzles. Under the heading of “sizes of farms’’ the Government Statistician shows that the average rural holding is 508.63 acres in extent. The difference between this and the 1925 average rural holding (507.49 acres) is slight. In a

further table it is shown that the number of holdings declined from 85,977 in 1925 to 85,734 in 1926. Holdings from 10 acres up to 640 acres are tabulated in six classes according and in every case that number of holdings is less in 1926 than in 1925. This indicates a certain amount of aggregation, but at the top end of the scale, that is among the largest holdings, there has also been a decline. Holdings over 5000 acres are 12 fewer in 1926 than in 1925, and that 12 implies that 183,443 acres of land has gone into lower area classes. The net result of a reduction in the number of owners at both ends (the little and the big) is an increase in the intermediate area classes. Holdings of ■■ -0 acres or less numbered 64,077 in 1926, as against 64,348 in 1925, a de- • rcase of 281, but the holdings above .“•20 acres numbered 21,657 in 1926, against 21,619 in 1925, an increase of 38. The Government Statistician sums it up in this way: “The decrease of 281 holdings of 320 acres or less is reflected in a decrease of 19,954 acres in the aggregate area of those holdings. The larger holdings, while showing an increase in number of 38, reveal a decrease of 5589 acres in their aggregate area. This is accounted for by the fact that the very large holdings (over 5000 c.rcs) have decreased by 12, involving a decrease of 183,443 acres.” The average farm is considerably smaller in the North Island than in the - - th Island. The area of poor high country in the south makes this inevitable, though a continuance of good farming in the south and bad farming i impoverishment of pastures) in the north might do something to redress the balance, particularly if, in the markets of the world, sheep products were to appreciate relatively to cow products.