FEDERATED FARMERS' NEWS LETTER

Chronicle (Levin), 1 October 1949, Page 6

FEDERATED FARMERS' NEWS LETTER

The prices. of New Zealand's primary productb exported to Great Britain will not be aft'ected by tlie recent devaluation of sterling, aecording to the Dominion Pres.ident of Eederated Farmers (Mr W. N. Perry.) All goods from the U.S.A. will however, be dearer thaii before and the . farming community in New Zealand dependqd to a great extent on American maehinery. "Devaluation should be a spur to us to- increase our ekpoyts to the United States and Canada to ea-rn as many of these precious dollars as possible," "said Mr Perry. "Siuce Great Britain will liave to cut .down on her inxports, espeeially foodstuflrs, from the dollar areas, there is a ehallenge to the farmers of New Zealand to increase production so that she will not go short. " Mr Perry described the principal obstacles to this inereased production as the shortage of labour and housing, on the fariiis, the lack of fertilisers, and, above all, the fear of the farmer that if he improved his property it might be taken from liim. He also repeated his advoeaey on an Ehipire: Economic Conference of politicians, businessmen, farmers and worlcers to plan for inereased ' efficiency and production throughout the Empire. The Government would be pleased to consult with Eederated Farmers wherever possible when matters alfecting the .farming industry were being dealt with by legislation, said the Prime Minister, (Mr P. Fraser), replying to a letter from the General iSeeretary of the Federation (Mr A. P. O 'Sliea) in which Mr 0 'Shea had submitted a resolution carried by the reeent Dominion Conference of Eederated Farmers. The resolution asked that in all proposed legislation on matters \itally all'eeting the farming coinmunity, Eederated Farmers should be lirst consulted. The Prime Minister also aeknowledged a letter from the Federation which asked that an Empire Economic Conference be considered. • The promise of inereased production was made not by liim this year but by the New Zealand farmers ' representatives more than twelve months ago, said the Chairman of the Aid for Britain National Council (Mr F. P. Walsh) addressing tlie Dominion Council of Eederated Farmers at Wellington. Mr Walsh said that he VvTished to make it quite clear wlio had aetually made tlie i-ommitnieiits fur greater production so that lie could not be accused to having uusurped the authority of others. Mr Wai 3 i read a letter which he had sent to Mr J. W. Earl, past president of tlie North Canterbury Exeeutive of Eederated Farmers, concerning a report wlil'-h appeared in a Christchurch newsnapur. "From the nording the report it would set-m tnat you pe..n r.ally criticieed me ior promising in London a 25 per cent increase in our production in the next iive vears. This is obviously a case of a cub reporter misvepqrting your remarks, since a farmer in'vour position as immediate pastpresident of tlie jjrovincial executive of the federation would not liave fallen into this error, " said the letter. "For some obscure reason some leaders of the dairy industry, including

/ Mr W. E. Hale, conveniently ignoring the, quid pro quo of inereased production given by their own representatives when negotiating the long-term agreement last year liave tried to pass the responsibility to me. The Minister of Agriculture . announced these agreements in- 3.918 remarking, concerning the meat agreement, that 'a commitment has been made' and referring to the increase of 5'J,000 tons annually as 'a target to be reaehed not later than 1955'. " said M/. Walsh 's letter. Mr G. H. Grigg, as chairman of the Meat Producers' Bcard shared in tha negotiations on this agreement in. London on behalf of the New Zealand farmers, stated in 'The Press' on July 31, that "The Government together with the meat industry aud its representatives have undertalcen to make every effort to' increase meat production by 50,000 tons by 1955. This is a big task and 1 am eonfident that sheepfarmers will do their part. " Mr H. P. Mclntyre, chairman of the Meat and Wool Section of Southland Eederated Farmers said in the "Southland Times" on July. 30, that "I am coulident that the target of 50,0000 "tons increase on the present export tonnage will by 1955 be met or exceeded." The Minister of Agriculture announced the dairy increases agreement in July, 191S and on his return to New Zealand Mr W. Marshall who, with Mr R. A. Candy, had .represented the dairy industry in London during the drawing up of the agreement drew attention to the obligation accepted by them to increase New Zealand's dairy exports by up to 20 per ceut by 1955. In a newspaper statement on July 31, he said that "inherent in the longterm agreement was an obligation for New Zealand to do its utmost to expand the production of dairy produce" and that they had told the British Government that there was a possibility of this reaching an increase of 2U per cent by 1955. Mr. W. F. Hale said in a newspaper sthtement in July 1918, that "it is pleasing to see that the new eontraet covers-a seven-year period and I hope and believe that dairy farmers will plan for inereased production now that they • see the future clearly outlined. ' ' He had detailed these comments at length, said Mr Walsh because of the North Canterbury menibers of the federation was reported to have suggested that the Dominion Council of Eederated Farmers ask liim (Mr Walsh) what authority he had for saying that an increase had been agreed. In the "New ZealaiM Herald" of August 25, said Mr Walsh, the chairman of directors of the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Company Limited, told his shareliolders "when the seven years contracts were under negotiation in 1918 the British Ministry of Food was informed — that it would be reasonable to expect an increase of 20 per cent bv the time the contracts expired in 1955. ' ' By 1955, you will agree, we should have dorie with butter rationing in New Zealand," said Mr Walsh. "But this will mean that we must increase our dairy production by more than 20 per cent if our exports are to be 20 per cent above those of last season. Again, our own population.' by* 11155^111 be considerably greater than in 194718, and some account mnst be taken 'of this fact when estimating the inereased production of both dairy products and meat, necessary to enable u£

to keep our export commitments with Great Britain. It.will probably be necessary to obtam something like an oyerall increase of 25 per cent in our food production by 1955 if we are to keep faith. "I have taken two years off the agreed seven years, firstly because more than a whole year has slipped by since Messrs Marshall, Candy and Grigg negotiated their seven year agreement, and secondly, because the docks and herds will have to be in existence by 1954 to get the desired increases in the 1951-5 season. We have, therefore, only dve years left to get these increases. ' ' J ust why Mr Hale and others should now be trying to nnload the responsibility for these commitments on to me it. is diffieult to say; perhaps Mr Hale now thinks that we cannot gqt „the increases he spoke of twelve months ago. 1 notice, too, that some of your menibers are doubtful of this. "Frankly, I don't see why certaia dairy industry leaders are getting cold ■ feet. I can't believe that their rep1 resentatives spoke with their tongues in their cheeks last year when they offered inereased production in exchange for a long-term priee," said Mr "Walsh. Mr Walsh emphasised that with fulL friendly co-operation New Zealand could get her inereased production and the British people their food.