PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 867, 13 July 1910, Page 5

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.

WORK OF, THE UNIOIt. ..-. ■ :/THE FARMERS' OUTLOOK.. ' . - The president, in his annual address, mentioned that this was the tenth year of.the existence of. the'union, and the' occasion 'was. appropriate for .'.it. briel.' allusion ..to its hopes and fears.. The reason, of; its birth was practically a cry for freedom. " Freehold of the land and, freedom of-contract was the , demand expres&sd .in the union's , platform. Gradually but surely the theorist - was guiding- the-policy of; the day in, the 'direction of the nationalisation of-.the land, and the curtailment of'the rights;of'the individual.. The success;-. ful- organisation of farmers was. a. protest against this tendency. The : viewj> of the-farmer, because Of his isolation, were in.'danger' of LHiig. ignored,whilst the.- organised forces- against him received undue consideration! As agriculture. w r as the basis of all. life, the. profitable and economical working of theland was therefore of importance to every inhabitant of the Dominion. The union had' resolutely- fought against the teaching' of -the the means of-production should 'be controlled; by the State—as we know- it to be the most unprofitable and costly system.' -..■:'■ ■••-.- Non-Party Attitude; , Although received with contumely at first, a-s :t -supposed political . associa,tion.,;,.the. union. had to a- large extent : ]ive'd : :tfia!.t!!dowh','/'aid 'could'fairly.cl.aim to have altered the trend of public, opinion in regard to the land, and have succeeded --in; getting . acknowledgement, from a. large majbrity' of the House, as an expression of the opinion, of, the, people in favour of the freehold. They, had used, and musi ever 'continue.to. Wo.every' endeavour to securepoliticians.'.who..supported., our views. Tint they had- succeeded in thfsj and. still retained their non-party, attitude, is evi-' dehcedby the fact.that they had cordial 'supporters on both sides of 'the House. lh polities, their endeavour has been to direct public attention into the pro-per-channels, which in'their turn must! influence thc.'Ministry.of. the..day. Although it is no part of. the work-'of tho' union to enter into business-, several very successful business associations had; had their, origin in'tho union,'andmuch to the. benefit of. the producers! They".mightyfairly claim' to.have done something'to'improve the farmers'- lot; given- him' -the. means, by organisation, to .-defend himself against att.-ck from every-, quarter, and to make his voice \ heard- whenever, it had be?n necessary in. his, own interests. ■_ Nr.irlv- .every paper-one. took Mm, when dealing with this subject deplored the apathy of the farmer; but he wa-s convinced that they had. made great progress. There vet, ..however.,;, remained much to bo done.

■ The Past Year. •; "In reviewing the past voar arid season,? continue.! the president, "1 am yw.pleased to; note .-ihat the iarmora in'.. South- Canterbury, have been well organised,, and several strong brandies bave been •formed. 'Elsewhere, there has also been a further awakening. On tbo'.-wliolo, -tho season so 'Jar as' the Farmer: is concerned has been distinctly above the ayerage/. It is not usual that ■ good, seasons--'and -.high price's.' go together, ..but, so far as. wool is concerned, "this, has been the case this year. ■ Tho agriculturist has . not been so fortunate,; although' the prices for grain have' been good in the case of wheat, and-fair in the case of oats, tho • crops, have been disappointing'; there, has been more rust; and tho harvest'weather'was, .'in many cases,' extremely bad. As. a result, we- have not so, ranch good milling wheat !to export as r -we. ■•hid.'last year;' and there, will be.no'oats for export. As Australia has'had a,".bumper" crop of; both grains there isi no' opening there for oiir surplus, and most will havo to go. to London. The. rape crops wore on the whole good, ;bufc tho turnip, crops in many districts wore very much destroyed by Wight. In Wellington ami Canterbury this. was. so much,the case- that at the present, time most of the turnips are finished.- The fattening of lambs, however, has' gone on to a larger extent than "ever, and we are likely to have oyer ; five, millions sheep and lamb imported this year, or .nearly a quarter of the sheep of the Dominion. Tjiis is ah enormous number'for a" small country to send, away, besides feeding the population, and yet it is likely-to be increased "unless the price of wheat recovers, and more of the fattening country .is devoted to dairying^

1 Wool. : '■Wool has ' almost completely recoV' ered, from the fall which: took place, and this, our staple export product, was valued at £7,941,655, a record year, arid £2,400,000 more than the previous year. On all hands those best able to . judge (if there are aiiy such) seem, to expect a'--'continuance'- of .good price's. So far as can be judged, the demand for wool;has overtaken the supply, and' tho. cotton crop' l will be, for some, time yet, quite .inadequate for the .world's mints. '. Dairying. -"Dairying has again been ; a very profitable trade;: the quality of the produce has been well kept up and an , increase of the output to tho total

of £600,000 has'taken place. .This will probably'be largely increased again next year, as therp : are indications of many farmers going into"-injuring, and cows are in ' great demand. There is evidence ' that the skim-milk pasteuriser will como largely , into vogue, arid if the froth difficulty is' overcome, there is ho reason'why'every, factory should not have one, for the expense is small. I- think that "once the . Department is sure that-the machine works well through a whole season, its use should bo made compulsory. There is still contagious abortion aiid maminitis ti> combat, and in both cases something must'be done to check their spread. ' • Testing and ttie Dairy School. "There is still very. little attention being paid to testing individual cows. In a business such as dairying, whereso many new men are going into it every year, and paying high rents, it is difficult to get people •to ,-see the necessity of this simple ...means of- improving their- returns because it ijr;looked upon as expensive. 'The technical schools, and further .'.demonstrations by the .Department will in the I end..conquer-this error. . '

• "Tho Dairy School, the.Minister for Agriculture has pronounced against. For myself,'l have never seeir the necessity for. such a school; wo are long past that stage. There is, however,

great, need for research and : experi'lEP.rtt, and above all advice'to the factory managers by experts. -There is need of a bacteriologist specially devoted to this branch'-of the Dominion's trade. 'A 1 trade of such dimensions, with snob, prospects, is snrely worthy of ■ assistance 'on the scientific" side, which ' cannot be supplied ■by the factories theniselves, however much necessity there is for it. ■ ■'-

"Tho flax trade, which is another branch of primary production ill connection with the land',, has not been so prosperous. Adversity- has been the moans' of special attention being given to'' the saving of : cost of output; and a great deal has been done, in this direction, but much remains to.be done. Tlie saving already effected has' enabled tho mills in the most favoured. localities to keep' going at a' profit, but . the export has/fallen, from £850,053 in 19U6-7, to £373,145 ; last year. '"■•

Frozen- Wieat. "Even with lower-prices the value of last year's export formed a record, and this year is likely, to exceed if both in numbers and value. The prices for lamb 'havo kept' up in a most, satisfactoryand. encouraging way.. Beef has. also been much higher, and. .there,; seems a likelihood of our beef finding"'puniiaji" ently,,a better market in London, as the 'North- AworicaiirtiSniJllly fJ.a,.,,"! 1^1 ' restricted, and will 'soon be ~npn -est:' '.'During, last. winter I. was invited,' as your president, to a conference, on tlte'subject of..tne (l meat trade,in.;Christchurch. It is more necessary, in the meat trade than, any other that there, should be organisation; until this is accomplished- the producers will continue to suffer. . ' •••■,' . Defence. "During last session a Defence Act was passed, of the utmost importance to .the'welfare of the Dominion.. Uni T versal training was adopted, and I am sure,: as we have been; consistent, supporters of. this'principle,' that we all heartily congratulate tho Ministry and the House on tho passing of this measure. In our own way we have tried to foster tlie'use of arms, and under the rules adopted by the last conference, a competition for the shield presented bv tho Colonial Ammunition Company 'took place, and although only three' teams took part'in. the competition' there was a good deal of-interest evinced. . ' ' ..'■ 'Afforestation. "In'afforestation'much is being done by the. Lands Department, but there is room for enormous expansion. In 25 vears most of our timber will be cut out; and. the'.'efforts'>e are making to provide against that timo aro on much too small a scale. Our Government has largo areas of sand dunes quite close to the. settled; districts and to the rail-, way .'system;. by starting a nursery, in the district where the trees were to be planted, so as to acclimatise them, and by systematically planting an area each year', it would not bo long before provision for the future, would, bo made, and it would prove, a profitable under-, taking. The occupiers of sea-coast runs arc offered compensation for planting under their lease,'. but". the terms are not'sufficiently liberal, and as' far as I know have not been taken!advantage of. £100,000 a year" would'not be too much to spend in afforestation; all that has,'been spent so far is' the amount accruing, for royalties.- .''■■■'■'•'

: Education. "I should like to takp this-opportun-ity' of thanking the Education Boards for the way. they have assisted in furthering 'agricultural- education. : -True, we'have. no. Si ate'-College, but tho instructors in, this, department, appointed by, the-various boards, are all doing good work, and I am sorTy to say tho opportunity which is being afforded in agricultural classes, is not being sufficiently taken advantage, of.' It should lio tho duty of each brancli of the union- to give their assistance to encourage: tho instructors by getting the classes, filled. ~' '■■•':

."Unfortunately,".the children in. our. schools arc taken away at a. very early ago.. If - education ;is as necessary as the nation. considers it, by making it compulsory/surely' to ■.-.allow half educated children to leave school is a mistake. ■ I was very glad to see'our, new Governor speak so strongly about .agricultural education at the -capping cere-, mony in. Wellington the.other; day.' 'Hie public ear is more easily caught when spoken to by those in high places, an.d wo -may look with confidence for the assistance of-Lord Islington to further this important, matter. . "There seems to be some hope that a Chair of Agriculture may be established in connection with Canterbury College, and I hope before another year is over that we shall have a professor of agriculture installed.

Proposed Veterinary College,

; "Tho Veterinary College is still nonexistent. It would bo much cheaper and better for our students to take advantage of the opportunity of attending the veterinary classes, under Professor Gili'uth in Melbourne, tlian wait for'ours to bo-started. At the last'A. and P. Conference T brought forward a' suggestion to establish scholarships to enable us to send two students per annum to this school, and showed that for £750 per annum, wo could maintain ton students there; a naHi smal-

I lor: sum th'aii; a school ; in . Dunodin could possibly: cost, but the- authorities did not. entertain, the .suggestion: Mr. Gilruth is not a ,'pefsbna grata! with tho powers that be.' I look'upon Professor Gilruth as one of the best friends the-', fa'rmcrs" of -New Zealand, have ever • had..- (Hear, .hear:). The A. and-P. Conference passed-a resolution asking the various associations of tho Dominion to agree to find a smalt sum -per annum each to found onp scholarship, but I very much. re-, grot to say that so far there has not been sufficient support promised to warrant tho committee to take steps to select a student. * Experiment Farms. "Until: we have a proriouiieement of what the present Minister proposes to do-in connection 'with' each of -these it would bo premature to say anything about thoni. In connection' with this experimental, work, much lies in the. hands of the farmer himself. To multiply ' experiment:- farms sufficiently to give all farmers the benefit' in their own neighbourhood is out of the quesHowever, if some.land, even ten to' thirty acres, were placed at the disposal of- tie. Department'in some", central- spot,; easy .of access, where > ox r periments might be made over a series of years, the benefits-of a farm-would he gained, aud at a small expense. Cross fertilisation of' grain or plants such as flax would be impossible under these conditions perhaps, but.that could be done at the. present experiment farms, and the results tested at the . various experiment stations. I thus established.- I think the' union might do a great deal of good in this respect by arranging for-land being placed at the disposal of' the Agricultural Department, so., that experiments can be carried on in tbejr, midst. I am, glad to be able to congratulate the Hon'. T. Mackenzie, on tho publication of tljo Department's . Monthly Journa}." ' I hope he will .religiously keep it for the detail of original, work, and not allow those responsible for the. publication to fill it with borrowed articles.

Immigraticn". • "I am glad to note that the action, of the ■ union in Southland in helping immigrants to come out. and settle was successful.'. Farmers- are too .apt to lean on ..others, preferring that romconc else should make the. trial and theyreap the harvest. In this case the example of the Southland Union shows, that farmers, do sometimes take the initiative, and the success .of -.'the experiment has encouraged- the Government to maice the.-'experiment' thenvselves. ; .' '} .' .'..". .

"I have not said, anything of the future; that is 'in,.the.lap of the gods.' I am sure,' however, .that the union will assist ..in making it'.successful! I havo to wish you a successful. and- encouraging conforehce."

A. vote of thanks to the'president for his address was oarried by "acclamation: