ORTHODOXY

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19324, 2 August 1934, Page 9

ORTHODOXY

(To the Editor.) Sir, —It is amusing lo read the various opinions of staunch orthodoxy as repeated in the Waikato Times during the past week. We have Mr R. A.. Candy, in his address to the Herd Testing Federation, stressing the necessity of “reducing costs” and the farmers, by exploiting the most up-to-date methods, “could produce butlerfat at a far lower cost than any other country in the world” —a rather remarkable process of reasoning. Doubtless our competitors are having it drilled into them also, by their “experts,” that they must produce butterfat at a lower cost than New Zealand. Where is “reduction of costs” going to end, -Mr Candy?

Then we have Mr F. H. Anderson, in his presidential address at the annual meeting of the Cambridge Dairy Company, referring to the annual wastage in dairy herds. He mentions £20,000 as the capital loss of his suppliers in this direction, besides a big loss in “income.” Speculation in that direction is fallacious, for there is no certainty that the extra butterfat would mean an addition to the farmers' income: it is entirely possible that it would mean lower prices all round. The more we produce the poorer wo get, these days. However, the Cambridge Company is io be congratulated on its determination to pay for milk on its cheese content rather than on tiie present absurd practice of butterfat alone.

During the week Air D. V. Bryant has had a meeting in Auckland of staunch conservatives in connection with his immigration proposals. The select audience was duly thrilled, we are told. The writer knows -several deserving cases among the unemployed and farm hands living at “starvation point” in his own district who would make splendid farmers, given the opportunity. Surely our own New Zealanders should be attended to . first. Land settlement under existing conditions is murder, and cursed will be the name of the man who induces new people lo come into Ihe country lo suffer grinding poverty.—l am, etc., R. G. YOUNG. Gordonton, July 29, 1934.