NO MONEY IN FARMING

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 7, 6 December 1926, Page 8

NO MONEY IN FARMING

SAYS WANGANUI MAYOR. BETTER ROADS NEEDED. Interesting observations on the difficulties at present confronting farmers were made by the Mayor of Wanganui (Mr Hope Gibbons) at a dinfier tendered to the Minister of Public Works (the Hon. K. S. Williams) and members of the Main Highways Board. The Mayor referred to the necessity of adequate roading facilities for backblocks settlers, and said that in the Wanganui district land had been roaded and sold on maps alone. Land sold originally at £2 an acre would in some cases command no more now, even with all improvements.

Farmers were up against it at the present time. Two soldier settlers he had backed, he said, on a 1200 acre farm—7oo acres in grass, and the rest felled bush—had failed to make a success of it, and the place had come hack to him. He had now sold it for £SOO, and even at that ridiculous price the sale was only a paper transaction, no cash being paid over. His own interests in farming had shown him that there was no money in it just now. A place he was interested in was producing wool and meat, but making no money. The Government’s graduated land tax was not, he contended, helping in the development of deteriorated land. Furthermore better roads were wanted. Settlers were walking off their properties in the Wanganui district because the road facilities were inadequate.