STRONG CRITICISM

Evening Post, Issue 126, 29 May 1936, Page 8

STRONG CRITICISM

MARKETING SCHEME

DAIRY INDUSTRY CONTROL

"OUSTING THE FARMERS"

(Special to the "Evenintf Post.")

HAWERA, This Day.

A scathing attack on what he described as the Government's intentions to "oust dairy farmers from the control of their own industry," and Hie allegation that the primary produce marketing proposals meant the destruction of the co-operative basis upon which the whole of the dairy industry had been built up, were made by Mr. W. A. Sheat in his presidential speech to the annual conference of South Taranaki branches of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, at Hawera yesterday. Mr. Sheat, who was once a Labour Party candidate for Parliament, made a spirited appeal for less "calamity howling," liable to lead to the belief that farmers were unable to control their own affairs, and a greater front of optimism in full business ability. "We must recognise that the changes now being made represent the greatest plunge into the unknown this country has ever taken," said Mr. Sheat. "Over a period of 50 years our dairying industry has reached a stage of development which, in spite of all the hardships of the depression, has been one of the greatest triumphs of the cooperative spirit to be found anywhere in the world. Today we are asked to believe that co-operation lias failed, that those who have built up this industry are no longer capable of controlling it. Is there any warrant for this belief or for the belief that governmental control of marketing can offer better results than co-operative control? Ido not think there is. "It is difficult to understand why the whole principle of co-operative marketing should have been thrown overboard by a party which has always professed a profound regard for cooperative marketing:, which roundly condemned previous Governments for their alleged hostility towards co-oper-ative marketing and which went to the election pledged to encourage to the full the principle of co-operative marketing and the right of the farmer to control his own marketing." IMPROVEMENT IN PROSPECTS. While the position of the farming industries was still considerably below that of the years preceding the slump, continued the president, it had to be admitted the season just closing had seen a substantial improvement in the position and prospects of a majority of primary producers. In spite of the fact that some in the Farmers' Union ranks still talked as if the outlook was still as black as in the' depths of the depression, the process of readjustment to new value levels had gone far enough to enable farmers again to see daylight ahead. The raising of the exchange, reduction of interest,' readjustments of mortgages, and other measures of relief had all tended to the restoration of farming to a payable basis. While the indications were that, apart from the risks of export legislation,, the prospects for farmers generally were brighter, there was need for great care if the advantages of recovering prices were not to be swallowed up in a rapidly mounting burden of overhead charges. "Everywhere today we find a tendency for overhead charges again to increase," Mr. Sheat pointed out. "Costs of government, the burden of. local body rates, transport charges, all such costs and the whole cost of living are on the up grade. Add to this the prospect of large expenditure on public works, much of it of an unproductive, nature, and the prospect forthe future is not bright. In the final analysis all such overhead costs come back as a charge on the. wealth and production of the country. The producers can carry a certain load, but the indications are that in New Zealand the limit has already been reached. Should these burdens increase, our whole economic structure will become top-heavy and the burden on the producer will become impossible to carry. > "New Zealand, I am satisfied, can only attain economic stability when the maximum number of people are actively engaged in productive employment. It is to be hoped the policy of the future will be based on a clear recognition of this fact, to avoid the enticement of people from productive industry to parasitic and non-produc-tive occupations and to aim at the op■posite." . l MORE OPTIMISM NEEDED. "Our Farmers' Union spokesmen should foster a more optimistic attitude towards the industry generally," emphasised Mr. Sheat in concluding his address. "Of recent months in particular it has been strongly impressed on me that we have allowed pessimism and 'calamity howling' to occupy too prominent a place in our discussions." "What is the result? There is an impression in many quarters that the fai'ming industry is in a hopeless muddle, that the general body of farmers is incapable of managing its own affairs, and that a large proportion is kept on its farms only through aid afforded by other sections of the community. This view I believe to be false. The energy and resourcefulness of the farming community is today higher than ever; in no section is there a keener desire for improvement and a greater willingness to adopt new methods. That the majority of farmers have been able to weather the depression is surely a great tribute to the courage, the adaptability, and the resourcefulness of the rank and file of our farmers and clear proof that the qualities that enabled the fanners of this district in a little more than half a century to convert a virgin country into one of the most productive portions of the earth's surface, are still alive to ensure the further progress of our industry in the years to come. "The worst enemy the farmer has today is the farmer who is always crying 'stinking: fish' in regard to his own industry,' who emphasises the worst features of the rural problems. Such men are largely responsible for creating throughout the country a psychology favourable to depriving the farmers of their rights of self-govern-ment. If that attitude is allowed free rein it will produce an atmosphere favourable to the complete separation of farmers from the control 'of their own business. "It is for these reasons that I suggest for the future a determined effort to restore among the rank and file of the farming community a spirit of hope for the future, of confidence in the industry, and above all in the capacity of the farmers of New Zealand, given reasonable opportunity, to work out their own salvation, to make a success ' of co-operative management, and to I play what must always be the major ipart in Iho development of New Zeai land " ■ I