The Farmer and the Legislature.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19175, 5 December 1927, Page 8

The Farmer and the Legislature.

The Arbitration Amendment Bill has been replaced by a simple provision that, although existing awards will run on, the farming and allied industries shall be exempt from any fresh regulation until September, 1928. By that date, it is expected, Parliament will have had whatever opportunity it may have required to take up the subject again, and in the meantime some kind of a general conference between employers and Labour organisations will" have been held. The only useful result of the introduction of the Bill was that the case of the farmer received ,some of the' notice that was due to it. Although the welfare of the people of New Zealand is,- has long been, and will long continue to be, dependent upon the welfare of the men on the land, the people and the Legislature have been very slow to recognise the fact. The signs are becoming more numerous, fortunately, that the Government is recognising, with some anxiety, the urgent need for giving the farmer a larger place in its concern. Mr Coates said on Saturday, for example, that many farmers were finding it difficult to get on, owing to the burden of costs, and that, wdrse still, "farming as "an industry was not being sought "after as it ought to be." For that reason, he added, he thought that" any- " thing that would arbitrarily fix costs " on the farmer was leading to a posi- " tion that called for immediate relief." The immediate pressure of the Arbitration Act on the farmer is by no means the worst of the burden he bears. Whenever any award is made by the Court which increases the cost of production in any industry whatever, the farmer is more seriously affected than anyone else. For the industry concerned can, up to a point, pass on the extra cost of production, and the fanner is the only producer who, when the load reaches him, has nobody to whom he can pass it on. For the bulk of .the primary products of- the Dominion is sold in foreign markets, and the prices in those markets take no account of any increase in the farmer's production costs. The tariff operates against the farmer in almost exactly the same way. Our economic and industrial policy is, in fact, so shaped that it takes some care of every interest except the most important of all, for the primary producer is the foundation of the national structure. We have said before that the Government ought never to propose any legislative measure without first enquiring how it will affect the farmer and making sure that it will not do him any injury; and we welcome any sign that the Government is beginning to share this view.