Dear Sir

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 41, 5 February 1946, Page 4

Dear Sir

Letters to the Editor must be clearly written on one side of the paper only and where a nom-de-plume is used the name of the writer must be included for. reference purposes. The Editor reserves the right to amend or withhold any letter or letters.

FARMERS’ UNION AFFAIRS Sir, —We the' working are being told that Federated Farmers is going like a steam engine and that practically every farmer is joining it. This is very far from the truth indeed. I have had the privilege of addressing large meetings of farmers from one end of the Auckland Province to the other and I can port this, that the farmres are not joining Federated Farmers; they have no faith in it, once they have had. the opportunity of hearing the lull story. A small number have joined, i.e. members of the D.F.A.. a few of the Sheepowners’ Federation and some with a strong political bias.

The men who perpetrated this thing have done one of the greatest uisscrvices to the ianuw„ mat could be imagined. My statements concerning the danger inherent within the Federation structure have been fully proved on the platform with members of the Provisional Council on the stage opposite. Those meetr ings were very difficult to every attempt was made to sidestep them. They wished to call their own meetings at which only the one side; was allowed to be heard.

I have proved definitely that the Federation cannot work. It will create a pure dictatorship, divorce the farmer still further fom his, representatives and divide us up into water-tight compartments. It is also v6ry widely considered to be. party political. All these faults need not have arisen. They can be rectified provided there is honesty of purpose and goodwill in Wellington. But so far in Wellington they have re-* fused absolutely to countenance any changes whatsoever. We have been denied the use of our own paper. They have at all times attempted to so arrange, meetings that the lull story may not be known. The only times that w r e have been able to meet them on the stage is when the farmers themselves have insisted that both sides be heard. They are afraid of the truth. We as farmers must be the judges and insist everywhere that we get the full story, not just a part. We stand for an organisation democratically based on the branches. One voiee of the powers that be; non party political and prepared to foster and protect eo-operative enterprise, unifying all farmers and bringing our representatives closer, not further away from us. The Federation is not that today. Yours etc., R. >w/ DUNNING.

MAORI PLACE NAMES (?)

Sir —As regards the explanation of the name Matata given by A.B.C. in your paper I must say that he has got hold of the wrong end of the stick or story. It was not a young chief who went to the tangi at the Lakes, but an old man, rather big and heavy at that; when the party reached near Lake Rotoma the old man puffing and panting sat down and complained: Ka he tolcu manawa “I am out of breath. My heart won’t tick any longer.” Unable to go either forward nor back home, the voung men of the party constructed a stretcher an'd carried the old fellow back home to Awa-o-te-Atua. When the people in the kainga saw them coming down the hills carrying someone th.e cry went, up: “Kei , teh old mai ratou he mca matata te tangata ra”—meaning they are returning carrying a man on a /lit-! ter; and in remembrance of. the fact that litter-carrying saved the life of the old chief they adopted the name Matata a bit shorter than Awa-e----te-Atua. Yours etc., E Hoa! He Kaumatua.