AGRIMOTOR NOTES.
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T• 0 the man of average intelligence with a know . the of affairs generally, it seems past comprehension that the Government should interfere so grievously with business—and that business the supply of essential requirements for the farms—as. it is doing. Something has been said before as to the illogical and unnecessary restrictions whichare being imposed. on the importation of agricultural tractors anch,:implemcnts, and now to its long list of tractor (and implement) muddles the Government has added another enfair and unjust requirement. As my readers May remember, since the beginning of the year., importers have only been allowed to import to fill actual orders already received from users, and it has been understood that. all such orders would be given permits, but it now transpires that, in the ease of implements, or tractors, of new types, this perminion is very often being withheld, although orders have been obtained for them from farmers who want to use them for the .better cultivation of their land, whilst, in at least one case, a permit given several months ago for equipment ordered last year and for which the shipping controller on the other sidehad already secured shipping space, has been stopped by cables from this side on the ground that the country already has enough of the outfits in question, although, as -aforesaid, the articles. are, wanted to fill orders already received! •
• And to all this is to be added another new requirement in regard to the financing of the shipments. The Government has taken this out of the hands of the usual trade channels and is purchasing the goods abroad and handing them. to the importers on arrival
here C.O.D. When this coarse was instituted in the spring and a price limitation imposed in return therefor, importers were required to have their prices approved by the Government before anything was dOne, and the Government declined to allow any financial charges attendant upon the importation to be taken into the cost and passed an tosthe customer, undertaking to do the work for the •timporters without charge. Accordingly, orders were taken on this approved basis' but when the guarantees came to be -.entered into to cover the shipments _interest at bank rate was included, which, in view Of the delays in transportation at the present time, could hardly work. out at less than ill per cent. and may be substantially mare. Seeing that the 'profit margin allowable had already almost reached the vanishing point, this was distinctly unfair to the importer, as, having sold the goods at a fixed price, he could not ask his customers for more, as the latter would naturally .hold him, to his contract. This in itself was bad enough, but now I. ant told the Government. has introduced a new system and a new form to sign, under • which it
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,charges a profit; or coMmission, of2 per cent., which charge is :to be made retrospective. Goods which have already been ordered by the Purchasing Commission in America andare on their way are to be burdened with this impost, which is most Unfair, and which, if attempted to he imposed by a -private firm on one of its -eustomers, would net be allowed for one minute, ut, heaven -help us ! In these days of bureaucratic .control, the Government does just. what
it pleases and no one can say a word.
Is it any wonder, when such absurdities asthis are
enacted, that the effect has been virtually, to kill the trade of the importers ? Yet they were the first to seethe _need Of the farms and had already come to the aid of the:country long before the Government wake up to. the realities of the situation and 'butted in" to the business so clumsily. .If anyone wants to see for himself just what the effect of this' illogical and impossible Government control ha•s been on the trade, he has only to look upthe farm and motor papers of last autumn and compare the advertising pages With those of the same papers to-day.
Another matter in connection with tractor importations,. which the importers, are particularly sore about to-day, is the fact that, although the Government has declined since the beginning of the year to allow any Of them to import Stock, a large quantity of l'ordsons are now being offered far sale by the Ford agents throughout the country, for early delivery. It has been publicly stated that these,, are riet tractors out of the Government contract released for wivate sale—which, in itself, would be bad enough—but that they are Machines which the Ford Co: has received permission to import. American papers say that no
fewer than 2000 are being-so &all with. Here we have the Government "making fish of one and fowl of another,"-and giving one firm a privilege which is not accorded to others.
According to some people, the steam plant for ploughing is, after all, the real key to the agricultural position, and efforts have been made to decry the selfpropelled tractor by comparison, but the experience of farmers would appear to show otherwise. When the Government undertook to plough up the land for the farmers, it commandeered all the steam plant in
the country, as well as all.the tractors, and with them a very substantial acreage was dealt with. But, I was in conversation last week with a Gloucestershire farmer who had jpst purchased a tractor, and who told me that the Government. had sent a stearn outfit and ploughed lip his land, but it was no use and he had to do it all over again. He said he had 15 acres of laud which had been done by the steamer, and that it had left the entire'field full of large lumps " as big as your head," and he was wondering, when he got his tractor, whether it would go over it at all !
AGRIMOT.