FARMERS CONCERN

Hokitika Guardian, 24 June 1933, Page 2

FARMERS CONCERN

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. WELLINGTON, June 21. “As a result of the action of financial institutions during recent years, there would appear to be no question that leg a] obligations entered info under quite different conditions <; * world 'trade and price levels a few rears ago, cannot be considered just 10-dny from .an equitable xpoint ol view.’’ This statement wa s made by Mr H. D. Ac land, of Christo iuirch, jn hLS annual presidential address to the New Zealand Bheepou nets’ and Farmend Federation to-day.

“It cannot, be too often po tiled emt,’ Mr Ad and said, “that the tar'inq. mortgagor today -is prying, or [.able lor, in kind (such as oats, lamb, wool or •or butter), interest rates and ’taxes, from two to four limes ns much a, 5 he paid or was liable for five years ago. He cannot py it 'and it is,.,rap; good pretending lie can.”

iMr Aclaiul said that on the bas’s of 1928 values a relief wave of £2 a i eek ‘given by Hie Government in currency to-day would mean £6 10s if paid in wool and about £4 a week if paid in butter or meat. Tho question was whether it would have been possible to pay 59,000 relief workers £6 10s or £4 a week in 19.28.

‘‘When it is remembered that costs Iqfp still approximately where they were font years ago, the hopelessness of the present position will be apparent,” Mr Aclnnd added. “What farmers need is recognition of the principle that the service which they give entitles them to payment at rates which •are equal to and dependent upon the returns which their labour yields. “Our legal obligation to pay Great Britain three times the „ amount of butter and lamb previously required to meet the interest bill, cannot be justified on moral grounds to-day, and when we aro told tha even at thi s level of price we are placed on a quota of quantity of goods in payment, the necessity for some positive action with regard to reduction of interest payments must be .apparent.

“With he franchise as it ig at present, both national and international fiannee cannot afford to ignore the facts. These facts arc that the grot ter proportion oif /the community in each country is to-day under a s® nse '°f i n ' justice owing to the loss of monetary equities an their properties, which are are results of lifetime thrift, through the following out of a policy which ling apparently not taken into account moral but statutory legal obligations only.

“Past experience and preSent-day facts show with great certainty th.it the working part of the community will not submit for long to pay too much to vested interest or the rentier class, and if the neces s ary -adjustment is not made in one way, it .will , be done in another, probably by depi'eoU* tion &f the currency. Legal contracts nutdo under currency prevailing at the time of arrangement surely presupposed a level of currency being (maintained ‘approximoltely equal to that governing the term s of the contract when made.”