SUPPLIERS’ MEETING.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5172, 31 August 1927, Page 3

SUPPLIERS’ MEETING.

TE AROHA FARMER DISSATISFIED.

MR. GOODFELLOW CRITICISED.

When the suppliers’ meeting at Te Aroha West was thrown open for general discussion last Friday the first man on his feet was Mr Bairstow. Mr Bairstow said he had listened attentively to Mr Sterling, but, not one single thing that the suppliers wanted to know had been touched upon. Mr Sterling had very diplomatically passed over control. Thftfarmers had lost a lot of money and they wanted to know where it had gone to. They had only one day on .which to air theii grievances, and he for one was going to take the gloves off and tell Mr Sterling and Mr Fulton wha t he thought of the company and its nianagement, and he expected to receive a. direct answer to his questions. Mr Fulton: I’m quite willing to take the gloves off, and as far as I am concerned, you can have all the information you want.

Continuing, Mr Bairstow said that they had heard a lot of talk about how science was going to perfect tneir butter but he would defy anyone to show where the farmers had benefited in price. The farmer was toiling from daylight until dark, working harder than anyone else and carrying the country on his- back, and the money that he should be receiving was used in paying fat salaries to men who never earned them. No man could deny that the salaries paid were out of all proportion to what the job was worth. When Samuel Lye awhile back tried to purify the articles of association they discovered that Mr Goodfellow was receiving £3429 ; be- ' sides this he was dabbling in wireless, coal, a National daily association, and had started off bn manure. In a country with a population of 1% millions here was a man who must be receiving about £6OOO a year. Mr Bairstow contended that Mr Goodfellow was not worth a quarter of. what he was paid.

Mr Buchanan said that Mr Bairstpw’s remarks were a reflection on the directors, and he thought Mr Fulton should reply to such statements.

Mr Fulton said that Mr Goodfellow had never received more than £2500 a year. At the present time his salary was made up as follows£soo from the Dairy Company, £lOOO from Glen Afton Collieries, -and £lOOO from the Challenge Phosphate Company. In the management of their affairs they had to 'have the best brains they could secure. No man knew more about marketing and economic conditions than Mr Goodfellow, and he was a man who earned every penny that wasi paid him. (Applause.)