FARMERS’ UNION.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 913, 11 June 1903, Page 3

FARMERS’ UNION.

(To the Editor of the Times.) Sit:,—lt is gratifying for mo to be able to announce that at last the copies we have been expecting for so long of the Colonial President’s able pamphlet on " Koine. Reasons why every Farmer should

join the Farmers’ Union ” have at last come to hand, and 1 desire through the medium of your columns (which you have always so courteously opened to me) to ask every farmer in Poverty Bay to apply either to the secretary of his branch or myself for a copy, should he not receive one. I feci assured that every farmer who has a reasonable and logical mind, if he has not already joined our ranks, on reading this pamphlet will wonder why ho has not received our organisation with open arms, and it will bo a gratifying reward to our able President if his labor and trouble is not thrown away, but results in an increase of members and a renewed impetus to the work of the union in Poverty Bay. I do not by this mean to imply that the membership is not increasing or that the work is at a standstill, for the reverse is the case. Since our conference, which sat not quite two months ago, we have managed to awaken public interest in the lighterago and wharfage tariffs, which seem to press unfairly on many sections of tho community ; we have taken active steps to try and provide fur tho wants of farmers (especially duiry farmers) by endeavoring to evolve a practical scheme to place within their reach the services of a veterinary surgeon. We have arranged with a firm of auctioneers to hold at least twice a year a goou horse sale under tho Union's auspices at reduced rates of commission, and it is hoped that if tho various secretaries of tho branches will help me to work it up by taking entries, etc., wo shall bo able to

make tiie sales uf such dimensions as to attract outside buyers in numbers to attend. Wo have effectually agitated tiie native land question, and have managed to get a cjuiLuiiteu of some of the most oxoert authorities on tiie subject in tile oay to oil and advise our doh-g-ite to the Colonial Conference. By the unanimous wi.Jt of the ieprescntativcs of all t e brandies, u was nsolved ai tti.it conference that wo tliuuid Coke a mui e active interest

in politics wlncli aiu nut necessarily of a party ciiaractcr, and surely this cannot be

liciu to uo unreasonable when it is rememtided that the tanner has only 20 representatives of his own eiass in a House of Representatives of 7ti members, arid only two in a Ministry of 14, while ho exports upwards of three-fourths of the exports of the colony, or to be accurate £9,861,951 out ol £13,141.709, and pays the greater part of ttic taxation. You will therefore, sir, see that tiie Poverty Bay section of

tiie Farmers’ Union has started its new year with renewed vigor, and it is to be hoped tliat all its officers will receive the active support of members, and bo encouruged by good attendances at meetings, and tiie prompt payment of subscriptions and arrears during the first three instead of the last three months, as hitherto, to continue the good work, —I am, itc., Lissant Clayton.