FARMERS' UNION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 23 July 1929, Page 2

FARMERS' UNION

DOMINION CONFERENCE OPENED IN WELLINGTON App.BJESS BY PRESIDENT • (Uy Tolujtraiib— Special to "The Mail") WELLINGTON', This Day. The President of the Now Zualand Fanners' Union (Mr \V. J. Polsun) presided at the annual conference which opened in Wellington today. .Mr Poison in the! course of his presidential address spoke as follows: "The work of the Union has made steady progress dining the year. Our numbers continue, to increase, our revenues to grow, and the interest of our members to he maintained. To-day the membership of the organisation stands higher limn it, over did in its history, and an analysis of the statistics lit farming population clearly establishes the fact, that the bulk of the, bona fide, farmers of this Dominion—men with a sufficient area, of land to make, it their sole means of livelihood—are. to-day financial members of the New Zealand Farmers' Union. Hut, there is still a great deal to be done. At no time in the, history of the fanning community has organisation been so necessary as it is at, the present time. The farming community need cool heads and stern hearts if they are to hold their own. In this peculiarly primary producing country, where the whole import wealth of the people rests upon successful production train the soil, and where, our market is half a, world away—this is particularly true. We have to maintain our organisation at all costs. "We have had a recent election in New Zealand, and have a Government m power pledged to go further than any Government has hitherto gone in assisting the primary producer to maintain his place in the sun. No doubt th e Government is perfectly sincere in this, but we must not forget that it is a business man's Government. There is only one genuine farmer in its ranks, and lie has been loaded with the two important portfolios of lands and agriculture. Two other members of the Cabinet are successful business men who farm land by deputy, but the rest of the party in power have no personal interest in the industry we follow here. The result is that the secondary Industries are taking heart. Enormous pressure is being brought to bear on the Government to grant more support to secondary industries through the tariff, by cutting out various state and municipal business enterprises, and by the readjustment of taxation to put, a still greater burden upon the land. No doubt the Government will do its best to maintain an open mind, but unless we are prepared to show our determination to light and to carry the fight through to its bitter conclusion. We may find our case going by default. "There is already a demand that the increased taxation foreshadowed by the Government shall be placed upon the shoulders of the farmer. A proposal emanating from men who represent city interests purely has been made that the farmer (should pay dual taxation instead of merely land tax. It is true that the pill is gilded by the suggestion that only th,e large, farmers will feel this additional burden. No doubt the small farmer would escape largely if not entirely, but those who talk of taxing the large farmer forget that every small farmer hopes some day to be in a position to increase his holding just as the shopkeeper hopes to enlarge his business in order to give a fair start to his sons and daughters. It must be understood that while farmers as a class arc in favour of closer settlement, opposed to land aggregation, and reconciled to the principle of a graduated land tax, they will solidly and unitedly oppose any proposals for dual taxation. It is true that as the one class in the community who can pass nothing on they ultimately pay all taxes; but a cynical attempt to load them directly with the double burden of land and income tax every farmer in the Dominion will determinedly resent. ''Unless we can get costs down we cannot get ahead with primary production. We have great areas of land in. 2s'ew Zealand which are only capable of being successfully farmed when costs are kept down. We are busy with fertilisers and careful breeding, increasing the yield upon our good country, but the first set back in prices will see a greater reduction in the output of our deteriorating lands than can, be overtaken in the increased output of our high-class areas.

"I am as confident about the future of New Zealand as any one but we cannot continually expect high prices. If the economists are right the return to the gold standard means a steady fall until we get back somewhere near the pre-war level. We have seen remarkable prices this year in respect .to all our main industries with the result that we hav e reached record export figures. Not only were prices good, but wc have had one of the most bountiful seasons for a number of years to still further inflate our experts. P.ul. we cannot expect a repetition of those conditions. Already there is a- serious drop in wool and suggestions of greater competition in Dairy products. Assuredly, unless wc can cut down our costs of production, we will not bo able to march ahead in the future with the extension of our industry.

"The average farmer is firmly convinced Kiat the chief cause of his troubles is the high cost of.labour, and that the Arbitration Court is largely, if not entirely, responsible. Until "the Industrial Conference, last year, threw a flood of fresh light on the question, he was quite certain that all that, was necessary to pave, the way for the millenium was to abolish the Arbitration Court in New Zealand and get back to the good old freedom of content of bygone days. A closer investigation, however, reveals the fact that labour in the aggregate, represents a much smaller proportion of the total costs of farming expended upon the farm than most people, imagine. As .1 have pointed out elsewhere a ten per cent, fall in farm wages would not mean anything like a live per cent, fall in farm costs. A ten per cent, fall iii wages would have a tragic effect upon the standard of living which as the result of a century of struggle the workers have built up for themselves—a standard which, in an age of progress, no man wants to see cut down. "A complete stocktaking in conjunction with labour might easily reduce costs and actually at the same time increase wages. THE PRICE OF PROTECTION "But nothing so seriously affects the costs of fhe primary producer as a protective tariff. Some form of tariff is. of course, essential. All that we can hope to do is to secure that our interests as primary producers are not neglected when tariff revisions are made, ami that we. do not wake up and (hid what, happened last lime—that a whole list of farm requisites had an extra tariff placed upon them. Bui while wc may be unable to materially influence the tariff, we can throw our weight on the side of Imperial Preference, of a group of communities each with a tax barrier against his neighbour. She has the great. a<l-

vantage over Gcrmffny that within her widespread realm slit' can prodttco all her own requirements and many t>[ the i requirements of the nations. i "We have got to make up our minds | that until we. can solve our own difli- i culty and reconcile our members to a ' policy of the greatest good for the great- ! est number, we will made no headway, i Wo are the victims of circumstances, j The fact that a section of our primary producers cannot grow essential crops | without some form of protection has j Ixeon mode u/v, of by the manufacturing community to demand protection and , more protection, the cost of which is j unfailingly piled on to the. farmer. Wc have made a rod for our own. backs. The thin'g to consider is what we are going to do about it. The first thing to do is to make a thorough investigation of our ; own position. NATIONAL STOCKTAKING j "There is no remedy, except a national .stocktaking and the use of hard work and national common sense. It is proposed to reduce the tariff. It it could he done it would he an immediate relief, but how is'it to he done? Sir Joseph j Ward is foreshadowing more taxation, | not a reduction.' The only way to reduce I taxation is to reduce expenditure by economising. There must, he no wasteful public expenditure of any kind— \ every shilling must he looked at twice'. ' A nation-wide reduction in costs of production to enable us to maintain , high and increasing export figures for our primary products in th fi face of the falling prices of wool and meat particularly, although butter and cheese are still reasonably good, is the only remedy. The whole, question is that circumstances have been too strong for the farmers. Some of them—wheat growers, maize growers, potato growers, tomato growers, and others, have been forced to ask for protection and now that demand is being made use of as a weapon to bludgeon the whole body of fanners who can pass nothing on, \ having to accept world paid prices for ! their products, while paying through [ the nose for everything they use by • means of the Customs tariff. Protective tariffs, 1 am afraid, are sometimes made use of to bolster up inefficiency in our secondary industries. We noe<l secondary industries, but they must be efficient ones. To establish them we. must first have a sound and successful base of primary industries. THE PROBLEM IN AUSTRALIA' "The importance of this question is j my excuse for including here a summary of a speech delivered at Canberra last month by the Prime Minister of Aus- j tralia to' the State Premiers at the t Interstate Conference. "There was," he | said, "something wrong with the national economy. Expenditure could and must he reduced. The alternative, increased taxation, would only add .to the burden upon production and defeat its own object. The true solution of economic difficulties, said the Prime Minister was a nation-wide reduction in costs of production, and unless exports were increased borrowing would have to be severely curtailed. "I liave quoted Mr Bruce because his utterance may be surely applied to this Dominion with equal force. THE REMEDY "The remedy we seek to apply is along the lines indicated in our political platform unanimously adopted by this conference last year —a proper practical and scientifically qualified tribunal created from specially selected men of the quality of the men whose report has been prepared for the guidance of the Commonwealth, and to whom shall be given the task quite apart from the burly burly of party politics of ascertaining what are the essential industries of the Dominion, the order in which they shall he developed, whether that development shall be assisted by protection or otherwise, and jf so whether that assistance shall be. temporary and permanent, and most importantly whether it shall be by way of fiscal' taxation or bounty.