SUPPORT ACCORDED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20119, 13 December 1939, Page 14

SUPPORT ACCORDED

PRODUCTION COUNCIL TARANAKI FARMERS VOICE OF THE UNION (Per Press Association.) INEW PLYMOUTH, this day. That the Farmers’ Union was wholeheartedly behind the National ICouncil of Primary 'Production in its efforts to increase production was made plain at a meeting of the (North Taranaki District Council of Primary Production last night. It was stated that the action of the Auckland provincial executive of the union was not to be taken as an indication of the official attitude of the union. From a perusal of the minutes of a number of meetings of these councils, it seemed that there was some misunderstanding of their functions, wrote the Dominion president of the Farmers’ Union, Mr W. W. Mulholland. He had noticed that one province had taken the attitude that union officials should not assist the council unless matters relating to economic difficulties and price questions were settled to their satisfaction. In his opinion farmers would be failing in their duty if they did not take advantage of 'the opportunity offered to mitigate the difficulties, which might become of extreme gravity in the near future. IHe, therefore, appealed to all members of the union to give their service to the utmost. “As far as the Farmers’ Union is concerned, that is their attitude towards the move for increased production,” said the chairman, Mr. IH. E. Blyde, a Dominion vice-president of the Farmers’ Union. “And not as intimated by the Auckland division,” added (Mr. J. C. Hamblyn, the provincial supervisor of primary production. MEMBER RESIGNS WAIKATO INSTRUCTION OBJECTIONS TO POLICY Acting upon the direction of the Waikato sub-provincial executive of the farmers’ Union, the chairman, Mr. G. T. Crawley, has resigned his seat as representative of the Farmers’ Union on the Waikato District Council of Primary Production. His resignation was accepted with regret at a meeting of the council in Hamilton. “If the Government had shown any desire or intention to accept the cooperation of the appointed representatives of the primary producers it would have facilitated' the measures suggested, which would ensure . increased production almost immediately and for certain next season,” said Mr. Crawley. “I can assure the council,” he added, “that members of the Farmers’ Union, as a patriotic duty to our country in this time of peril, will do all in their power to keep up production and to increase it, even though under the extremely difficult and unjust circumstances imposed on them by the Government.”

There were several reasons why the Farmers’“Union had decided to withdraw its representative. One was that ■it considered the payment to farmers not sufficient to enable them to pay competitive wage rates. The Government realised that the farm labour problem was hindering the farmer from maintaining production, let alone inreasing it. .