FAMERS' UNION.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 295, 4 July 1929, Page 5

FAMERS' UNION.

THE RECENT CONFERENCE

Report c£ Branch - Delegate.

The principal business before the June meeting of tne Putaruru branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union on Saturday was the report, of the delegate, Mr. L. M. Nicklin, on the j-ecent Auckland Provincial Conference. The following is a resume of the report:—

“ It is impossible to give full de--tails of the business done at the conference, and neither is it necessary, as most of you have read the newspaper reports of the discussions which arose out of the 138 remits which came before the conference. In his presidential report Mr. A. A. Ross covered all the more serious problems which are still facing the farmers throughout the country, and which seem no nearer solution, at least for the present. “ A good deal of organisation has been going on in the last twelve months, which entails the division of the province into sub-provincial districts, five of which have been formed and the sixth (Eotorua) has just been launched. The increase in membership will be pleasing to you all, as the province now contains 'more members than the Dominion had three years ago. At April 30, 1927, the membership of the Auckland Province was 2563, and at the end of April of this year it was 6023, after allowing for all cancellations and resignations, etc. “ The past year has been one of “the best on record, both from a production point of view, as well as for prices received. Yet people cannot understand why there is not a drift back to the land, especially so when it is remembered that unemployment is still, I regret to say, on the Increase. Of course, we will be told the same old story that land prices are too high, but on investigating it will be found that such is- not the case. For the surprising part about this high cost of land argument is that in territories where settlement should be proceeding, land has no value at all, and what is more, it -cannot or does not attract settlers at -all, not at any- price. Yet it stands to reason that if the land had a value, and a price indicating that if -developed it would return to the settler a decent living, and pay interest •on capital expended, then there would be no . difficulty in settling New Zealand’s unoccupied territories.

“In fact, the drift is still away from the land, instead of to it, as the following figures will show: The number of persons engaged oh farms in 1926-27 was 132,799, and in 192728 129,481, showing a reduction of -3318. When you couple those figures with the natural increase of population, is it any wonder that there is unemployment. “ The balance of trade during the last two years has been very much in our favour; so much so, as to -completely wipe out the unfavourable balances of previous years ana to leave us with several millions .to the good. Naturally one would expect to find these extra millions added to the purchasing power of the people, causing prices to harden, and in turn this would cause an inflow of goods until the balance is restored again, for it is generally re--cognised that credits from sales of our produce abroad are used to pay for purchase of goods made abroad to fill our requirements. “ But this time these credits rekmain with the banks, as showing an * excess of deposits over advances, and for all the good it is doing there we might just as well not have had any surplus of exports at all. This then brings up the question of interest rates on advances and deposits, as charged by the Associated Banks of New Zealand. For some time past the union has protested against the excessively high rate of interest ■charged by the banks on advances to their customers. But so far without result. Yet it ought to be clear to our bankers that a reduction of say 2 per cent on advances would stimulate activity both in our primary and secondary industries, as well :as help to reduce general costs. “ During the Inst twelve months the Provincial Executive have held several conferences with the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association. The view of the manufacturers is that secondary industries should be j built up in order to provide another avenue of employment. Your executive explained that the farmers would welcome the expansion of secindustries providing it can be ’ done on world’s parity and does not add to the cost of production. We have already impressed upon them our opinion that the primary producer is overloaded with costs owing to

protective tariffs upon which the secondary industries rely, and that these tariffs must be reduced, and any further increase will be strenuously opposed.” Mr. Nicklin then outlined the manner in which the various remits were dealt with, and he was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for the way in which he represented the Putaruru branch and for his able report.