FARMERS' UNION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 24 July 1929, Page 5

FARMERS' UNION

ANNUAL CONFERENCE (By Telegraph—Press Association) WELLINGTON, This Day. Among tho decisions arrived at by ifche Farmers' Union Conference was one in favour of asking the Government to call the Industrial Conference together again. The president said it had accomplished a vast amount of good. The. conference also resolved that the Arbitration Act be amended to make provision for compulsory conciliation and optional arbitration, following a recommendation by the. National Conference. The Farmers' Union Conference adopted a remit that the indenture of boys under apprenticeship contracts is not desirable. The Farmers' Union is engaged in discussing at great length the question of a sliding scale of wheat for growers, or whether it should be abolished ; also the question of substituting a subsidy. Numerous speakers aro objecting to the matter being left, to a committee of the House or being made a political matter, and the opinion' on every eido is very divided. Southerners are making a. point, that the wheat growers aro small farmers, not largo ones, and that there can be no suggestion of exploiting the public. It is also stressed that wheat growing employs a great amount of labour and that if wheat, growing becomes financially impossible Canterbury will revert to large areas and sheep, to the detriment of the Dominion.