SMALL FARMERS AND THE UNION.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 571, 28 July 1909, Page 10

SMALL FARMERS AND THE UNION.

A STUPID SUGGESTION .EXPLODED, ~ ; The cry of the-Government party that tho Farmers' Union does not represent the small farmers, was well answered. by Mr.' J. C. Cooper (of the advisory committee) at the union's Dominion Conference yesterday. It had been insinuated, ho said, that tho conference did not by any means represent the opinions of tho agrarian,population of Now Zealand, but simply a fow large landholders, or, in other words, the land. monopolists-V----that .tho unibn did not represent' tho small farmers, who had no voico in its councils. The two branches to whjch ho had belonged, namely, those of Mauriqoyillo and Pahiatua, were both collections of small,; farmers enr tirely. •(Hear, hear.) Further than that, both at their■ branch meetings and .at. the conferences, they had, ; from the very' first, advocated : the limitation of estates,' (Hear, hear.) They had on every possible occasion raised their voice against laud monopoly and

in favour of closer settlement. But while they had advocated this," they had also strongly advocated., a freehold peasantry, as l against State landlordism, because they knew as farmers and-as practical men.that the better, temiro a man had over hist land, the • better 'result's would lie get. out of it, and the better citizen would lie become. Tho union was anxious to promote the-close'settlement of the land, because it knew-that a country could best prosper as a'nation through the prosperity, of its peasantry. ' Mr. R. Evans (Kaiapoi, Canterbury) said the allegations referred to by. Mr. Cooper reminded him •of what the American missionary, said.. Ho said that if'ho threw a stone into the midst of a mob' of dogs, and, one of thorn howled, ho generally found that one of them had been hit. (Laughter.) Ho had found among tho newspapers of Canterbury that if. tho- fanners', unions, held, a meeting and a newspaper wroto an article against it, it was usually a sign that somebody had been hit. In his own bran eh, of tho union tho. president was' the. holder of only. 28. acres bfc land. As applied' to his' district,; the state-, ment that the union did not'represent.the small : ' farmers was.', a,..,deliberate,falsehood, and there were" : other. branches around his. whoso: position > was about tho samo. While his president i held only 28' acres, he believed no other member of his branch, except himI self, held nioro than, 200 acres.- Their areas ranged from 25 acres up, to/that.!',,;''