HON. W. D. S. MACDONALD AT RIVERTON

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 217, 7 June 1919, Page 8

HON. W. D. S. MACDONALD AT RIVERTON

STRAIGHT TALK TO FARMERS. Bj Tolettraph—Presd Association. Invercargill, June 0. At. a luncheon at Riverton, the Hou. W. D. S. Mac Donald, iMiuister of Agriculture, replying to criticisms of tiic Government's commandeer, haul that if farmers at tho beginning of the war had been offered the ruling price for all produce they would have aetcpli'd it eagerly. Now they wero getting one hundred per cent, more, ami as iie wTfls a farmer and the price meant a good reluru for him, he thought, farmers generally could not be badly off. It had been said that the shipping shorlage was merely a bogey, but the moat and produce in store was the property of l.lio Imperial Government, and if there were plenty of shipping why did nol llu> Imperial_Government in. its own interests move it? Soon? critics said the meat trust and combines .really owned tho meat, and in Iho saino breath accused the -Meat Trust of keeping shipping away from Xew Zealand instead of getting the meat ou Ihe market. The Minister said limners in the future could not expect prices in Now Zealand to be governed by Homo price?. Tho Imperial Government; paid scyouly millions to keep down the prjco of.bread, and fanners in New Zealand .could not expect to get the famine prices ruling there. He hoped men of strong character would bo returned at the coming elections. There was a Bolshevik clemont among the farmers and Labour, but ninety per cent', of both seel ions were loyal and prepared to withstand tli« efforts at. disruption.

The/British armies {including Dominson contingents, Indian .Army, and garrisons abroad) numbered . r >,tiSl),24'7 on armistico day, the armies of Franco 5,07'!,000, Italy 3,420,000, and the United Slates 3,707,132. It is estimated that Germany on tho same date had 4,500,000 troops; Austria-Hungary, at the time they went out of the war, 2,230,000; Bulgaria, 500,000; and Turkey under 400,000,