PRODUCTION FALL

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 233, 29 June 1944, Page 4

PRODUCTION FALL

N.Z.R.S.A. To Set Up Select Committee REHABILITATION ANGLE Alarm at the serious fall in farm lands production was expressed by resolution of the R.S.A. Dominion council conference in Wellington yesterday. It stated that if the fall was not arrested and greater production made possible, it would be disastrous to New Zealand. Land settlement was an important rehabilitation avenue and a production lull would affect rehabilitation. The Dominion executive committee was authorized to cull together as early as possible a select committee of ex-servicemen to consider the causes of the fall and suggest reuieMr. E. K. Cameron (Otago) said that such a committee could be instrumental in securing action by the responsible authorities. The fall in dairy cow herds was due to an uneconomic price. Were they going to sit back and let future farmers and settlers take what a disinterested government liked to give them? Mr. J. Singleton (Rodney) said a committee set up by the R.S.A. would get a better hearing from the farmers, because of the association’s good standing, than straightout farming organizations. This select committee could mafie a statement of which the country would take notice,* said Mr. G. R. Walsh (Franklin). Other organizations interested were to some degree sectional. Mr. D. Forsyth (Dunedin) said that many farmer members had cause for complaint and the association should act. irrespective of what other bodies were doing or had done. “If we are going to be an organization that gets things done, then let us do this.” “We must do something,” said Mr. H. D'. Bennett (Opotoki), who stressed the seriousness of falling production. “X want to be a farmer and I am going to be one, whether production goes down or not.” Mr. R. G. Gambrill (Gisborne) said he considered that the association had to some extent become too much immersed in petty details, and was losing the directing role it should possess. He supported the proposal. Mr, A. S. Wilder (Waipukurau) said that he had seen best heifers sold as fats. That showed something wrong. Heifers were being slaughtered which should be put to the bull. Best weaner heifers had been sold as vealers at Waipukurau. Mr.- C. AV. Browne (South Canterbury) said that unless wheat production was increased there would be a flour shortage. An increase, since 1935, of 29.000 acres in th'e areas demoted to certified seed growing in South Canterbury was quoted by Mr. F. AV. Grayburn (Geraldine). Farming was largely an economic question, he said, and because it paid better to grow seed, this area had been lost meantime to wheat, oats, potato and other production. Mr. C. E. Holmes (Waikato-Bay of Plenty) said they had been told by the Government and various farming organizations of corrective steps. . . . Major-General Sir Andrew Russell: But do you know what these steps ase? Mr. Holmes continued that if the Dominion executive committee was to be asked to tackle all these national problems, which concerned everyone and not ex-servicemen alone, it would be biting off more than it could chew. It should tackle matters affecting only ex-service-men.

The resolution summarized in the opening paragraph was carried* with a few dissentients. After speakers had pointed out that such action would restrict the rights of ex-servicemen, a remit asking for legislation to prohibit stoek firms, banks, etc., taking life insurance policies of returned men as collateral security against, advances, was rejected on the voices. Similarly rejected was a remit that the Dominion* executive committee approach the Stoek and Station Agents’ Association regarding commissions charged to tied* clients. An unproved remit from Dunedin recommended representations to the New Zealand Farmers’ Federation that in future runholders should give preference to returned servicemen who were experienced rabbiters and seasonal workers such as shearers and musterers.