FARMERS’ SUPPORT OF BEEKEEPERS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23966, 5 June 1943, Page 2

FARMERS’ SUPPORT OF BEEKEEPERS

o CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL “Too many controls are being introduced with the war emergency used as justification, and one by one our primary producers’ organisations are going under without provision for resumption of normal producer control after the war.” This comment was made in the annual report of the North Canterbury district of the Farmers’ Union at the provincial conference yesterday, referring to the support accorded to the Canterbury Beekeepers’ Association in its protest against Government control of the honey industry. The report stated that a deputation from the association which waited on the executive had pointed out that beekeepers did not want an increased price, but that they objected to Government interference which would result in a lower net return to the producer and an inferior mixed product to the consumer. The association was prepared to give the Armed Forces every preference in the open market, “There is a principle at. stake here, and one that the union would do well not to lose sight of.” stated the report. “There is far too much loose talk about sabotage of the war effort whenever producers raise a protest, and the real saboteurs, who in many cases, by regulation, added costs, and lack of guarantee discourage production, are lost sight of. The trouble is we have too many ‘yes men,’ too many ‘appeasers.’ "