THE FARMERS' CONFERENCE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 867, 13 July 1910, Page 6

THE FARMERS' CONFERENCE.

In the long and interesting Presidential address which he delivered to the annual conference of the Farmers' Union yesterday, Mr. J. G. Wilson evidently set himself to abstain, as far as possible, from expressing political opinions. The bulk of his speech was concerned with non-political topics, and it is very probable that at the moment the farming, community will be better pleased with Mr. Wilson's discussion of such home topics as wheat and wool and dairying—topics upon which he speaks with the intevcßtingness of an expert student of agricultural affairs—than they would be with a lecture upon the political matters which built so largely in Uie lengthy agenda paper of the Conference, ft hat Mitt Wilson has to say upon the wool outlook is distinctly encouraging, and'if he is less heartening in his discussion of tho wheat market, there is the .consolation that "whatever happens we are in this fortunate position: that we can turn tho land to other profitable production if wheat fails us." The recent appeal by Lord Islington for increased attention to the study of the science of agriculture is doubtless responsible for the confidence _ and vigour with which -the President discusses that subject—an old hobby of his—and we trust that the Union will realise the importance _ to its constituents and to the nation as a whole of creating a live public opinion in this connection.

Since Parliament is sitting just now, and since there is also great doubt as to the attitude which the Government will adopt on the question of land tenure, the political aspect of -the Conference' and the President's address are of the most immediate interest to the general public. The Union has in the past .been assailed as a political league concerned only with the 'forwarding of the interests of a political party, but nobody over paid much attention to that attempt to discredit the operations of a body that is perfectly representative of the whole agricultural community. It is in the nature of. things that the Union should, as Mu.' "Wilson __ indicates, have set itself against the' Socialistic tendency of the party in power. The agriculturist is iri every' country_ the opponent of destructive Radicalism. His great fault is his apathy, and his unwillingness or inability to make his weight effective against the Radicals who live upon his labour while reviling his prosperity and disturbing his peace. "Agriculture," Mr. Wilson says, "is the basis of all life." The advance-sheets of the Official Year-Book for this year contain some striking figures as to the dependence of New Zealand upon the primary industries. The exports for the year 1909 amounted to £19,462,936, or, excluding gold, £17,456,036, and of this amount no less than £13,627,921 is represented by wool, meat, butter and cheese, and agricultural produce. In one of his essays, Eiieksox, discussing the question of laws relating to property and laws relating to persons, makes the bold statement that if in some State it.were enacted that the suffrage should be confined t'o those who owned no property, the laws of that State would still be directed by the property-owners. It is only the carelessness of the agricultural community in' New Zealand, and its failure to watch closely the legislative behaviour of the members for rural constituencies, that have allowed the legislation of recent years to take an anti-agrarian drift astonishingly contrary to the importance of agriculture in the ' national economy. The efforts of the Union to arouse the landholders have begun to produce good . results, and only constancy is necessary, to a full success.