FARMERS AND FINANCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 1600, 31 May 1924, Page 5

FARMERS AND FINANCE.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Your leading article on the above is to the point, and the facts beyond refutation, though Mr Ewen McGregor does not seem to think so. As you say, after the war nearly everyone went mad, and the farmers certainly did. Judgment and foresight were thrown to the winds, and prices ranging from £7O to £IOO per acre were paid without the quiver of an eyelash. Now, Sir, we all know the sad facts; but what we want is a remedy. It is necessary, however, to ascertain whether this problem is a major or a minor one; if the former it demands national attention. We cannot ignore Mr W. .A. Porter's statement regarding farms and farmers in the Waikato, and I have questioned quite a number of farmers and salesmen who travel the Waikato, and: reports are gloomy indeed. Leaving aside all sentiment so far as scores of ruined farmers are concerned, my contention is that the welfare of the country is involved. When a man walks off a farm we may-'take it for granted that it has been going back for years, firstly because there has been no money to buy manure, and secondly because the farmer has been gradually losing heart.- We may also take it for granted that the same farm will take years to bring back. I was asked a few weeks ago to value a farm hardly a dozen miles from Hamilton. What did I find? A herd of miserable cows, blackberry spreading in all directions, fences down, ditches choked up, and a farmer with a haunted look on his face. Yet this land was of the very best, and if it is true that this case in point" is only one out of hundreds, or thpusands, then I say the country must' face the problem and solve it. The margin between our exports and imports. is far too small. No farm should be allowed to lie waste, and no capable intelligent farmer allowed to spend misdirected energy in the towns. We must increase our primary products, and let us not be afraid of glutting the world's markets. The world's population is rapidly increasing. New .markets are opening, and will open up, and the Eastern nations are gradually acquiring Western methods of living.' Put the farmer in a good position, bring in the waste land, and intensively cultivate in small areas the first-class land, and towns and country will alike prosper. The advances to settlers, although a splendid enactment, has one great drawback. It makes no provision to give a man a fighting chance on an unimproved or backward farm- Not only interest, but a fairly heavy sinking fund, is demanded right away. What we'want is a modification or extension of that Act, whereby good men could be placed on partly, or unimproved land, interest free for.two years, a minimum of both interest and sinking fund at the third year, and rising to a maximum over a period of years. Of course,-the Government would have to find away to finance several millions in the interim. I am of the opinion that if a loan was specifically ear-marked for land development, and the underwriters taken fully into our confidence, it would be raised on favourable terms. Such a measure would pay the country handsomely, and the time is opportune, as markets and land values are rapidly tending towards stabilisation. —I am, etc., W, P. KENAH. Matai Street, Frankton, May 30, 1924.