FARMERS’ CONFERENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 939, 11 July 1903, Page 2

FARMERS’ CONFERENCE.

MINISTERS INTERVIEWED.

MR SEDDON FIRM AS TO .UNIONISM.

Per Press Association* WELLINGTON, last night.

During Committee proceedings of the Farmers’ Conference, a motion that the Union should take a stronger position in politics was lost. In open meeting, it was decided not to come to any conclusion this year on the question of holding a Union Day every year, hut it- was understood that the provinces and branches could act as they, considered best in the matter. T It was decided that the Wellington Executive be Executive and Council together, with provincial presidents. The President said he thought it would be wise to next year select a South Island President, and to have an Executive there. The Conference waited on the Premier at Parliament Buildings. Tho principal resolutions which had been passed were laid before Mr Seddon by the President. In the course ol' his re])ly, Mr Sc-ddou said the farmers evidently feared results which he thought would not ensue from preference of employment being given to unionists. His own opinion was that a man who stood up for his rights was the best man. The desire of the Government was to place unionists in the same position they were under the first Industrial Conciliation Act. The trouble now was with those who were not prepared to give a fair day’s wages and Would penalise men for being unionists. To bona-fide employers, unionism was an advantage. Under an award of the Court, farmers would be protected against men making unreasonable demands during harvest. I-Ie promised to lay before the Union any Bills affecting the interests of farmers. If farmers wished that there should be special representation of small farming classes in the Legislative Council, it would he the duty of the Government to give attention to the matter. Referring to timber, he said that not a tree or acre of ground that could he saved for milling purposes in future would be destroyed. The Conference also waited oil Sir Joseph Ward, and put a number of their proposals before him. They appealed for the issue of certificates guaranteeing the weight of produce, and that as the weighing of grain in railway trucks was unsatisfactory threshing-machine weight he the basis of sale. They also thought that more rolling stock should be at the disposal of shippers. Sir Joseph Ward said that it was impossible for the Department to give a guarantee of weight. Railway weigh-bridges were only intended for checking weights for carriage purposes. Moreover, the proposal, if given effect to, would dislocate traffic by delaying rolling-stock. The proposal to take threshing-machine' weights seemed feasible. In regard to rolling stock, he explained that new vehicles would b& turned out by the Government workshops by the end of the" year. He said it w,as the) huge grata traffic of the South Island that could not lie carried over the railways in three months. The thing was unprecedented in the history of the colony. lie did not think that it could be expected that the Department would carry lime free for an unlimited distance, nor could anything be done to reduce freights on produce over the Canterbury railways.