WAKE UP FARMERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 97, 28 August 1942, Page 6

WAKE UP FARMERS

URGENT NEED FOR ACTION

UNION SEEKS TO HE-ORGANISE

A stirring appeal was made at the last executive meeting of the Auckland Farmers' Union for the adoption by the {Jnion ;i.s a whole Qf H (JSMirilPliYO programme of action. During a discussion on Lifuture prospects of the farming industry the Provincial President said: "I feel we are at the cross-roads. If we arc to play our part in tecting the interests of farmers we must lrave their confidence, and we can only get that confidence when they sec that we arc not simply talkers but that we get things done that no-onc else can or will do for them. Passing resolutions and sending them to Members of Parliament and Ministers of the Crown, with deputations in between, may be all very well in awwar,j r , but it gets us nowhere. I know, because I've been on hundreds of them. You hang round, sometimes for days, to get an appointment; then you get many honeyed words and go back home and that's about all there is to it.

"Another evil that must, be guarded against is the tendency to look to the Government for action that we ought to take ourselves. We complain of the interference of the Government in so many of our al'-i fairs, yet if an j r thing l'resh crops up that seems to demand attention we rush to the Government with a request, possibly backed up by a deputation, that it should conic to our assistance. When we have come to a conclusion upon any matter of concern to the farmers we should take immediate action right off our own bat, and then go to the limit of our capacity and resources in seeing it through. We should not allow any other body or any Government to divert us from our goal."

Mr J. H. Furniss (Ruawaro) said that present trends pointed strongly towards the establishment of State socialism in the post-war period. The only prospect he could see of escaping from the rigours of bureaucratic control lay in the building up of co-operative enterprise, and this was a job that had to be done by the people themselves. It was up to the Farmers' Union, as the body speaking and. acting for the farmers of the Dominion, to recognise the dangers of the present position, and to exert every effort to extend co-operative organisation, in whi'ch the hopes of democracy lay.

Other executive members spoke along similar lints, and it was decided to set up a sub-icommittcc to draft a scheme of action for submission to the Dominion Executive of the Union.