The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1917 THE FARMERS' UNION EXECUTIVE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 276, 18 May 1917, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1917 THE FARMERS' UNION EXECUTIVE.

"We nothing extenuate, nor set down auaht in malice

THE annual conference of the provincial branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, which opens at Auckland on Monday next and continues until Friday evening, will find full occupation for the time allotted if it is to discuss adequately the fiftyseven motions upon the orderpaper. The proceedings of a body of delegates representing New Zealand's chief industry, and gathered together from widely separated districts over the greater part of the province, is of interest and importance not merely to farmers themselves but to ill I who desire to see the progress and expansion of the producing class not only maintained but accelerated. In spite of a pretty solid ignorance in the mind of the average city man as to what life on a farm really is, he has usually managed lo grasp the fact that were it not for the labours of the man on the land the towns could not exist. The two most important subwith which the Union proposes t<> (leal this year are the forms that future taxation ought

to take and reforms in its own domestic affairs. In the former class of subject we are glad to find that a number of the branches are coming round to the opinions as to taxation so strongly advocated in the past by the " Times." The Te Puke, Waiuku and Patetere branches, all important farming centres, are urging the propriety of replacing the present taxation by an export tax. We have on so many previous occasions elaborated our reasons for preferring an export tax that we will not try the patience of our readers by recapitulating them now, but will leave the matter in the hands of the conference in the belief that full discussion of the merits of an export tax versus excess profits tax will clearly demonstrate the advantages of the former. But it is in regard to setting its own house in order that we consider the Union has the most important business of the present session to .deal with. Last Friday we ventured the opinion that the Executive was hopelessly out of touch with the branches and argued that the reason was because the branches had really no voice in its election. During the last two or three years they have drifted further and further away from one - another in sentiment, opinion and mode of thought. No one would be bold enough to maintain that the majority of members approved of the Executive's attitude towards the Naval Relief Fund. We cannot think that they would have received the support of members in their dictum that farmers must continue to deal with Germany for manures, or in their demand to the Government that farmers should be exempted from military service till all other classes of the community had been exhausted. We decline to believe that farmers as a class desire to hold their lands in security at home while the landless go to fight for them. Mr Montgomery, one of the Executive, put the case well when he said that the resolution really came to this—that the single farmer would be enabled to stay at home and amass wealth while the married shop-keeper went to fight for him.

Until the branches take into their own hands the power of electing their own Executive they cannot hope to be fairly represented and will have to suffer the odium that such illbalanced acts and utterances cast not only upon the members of the Union but upon the whole body of farmers, for the general public naturally believes the Executive to voice the collective opinion of the farmer. There was a time when the best opinion in the city went hand in hand with the Union, but does it now ? The every-day avocations of newspaper men bring them into touch with all classes of the community and we are afraid that the farmer is held in very different estimation at the present time to what he was but a year or two ago. And we do not hesitate to aver our belief that this is caused by a misconception of his character due to the actions and words of the Executive.

But there is a hope that this state of things is nearing its end. The Mauku Branch is bringing forward a motion for a more equitable system of election. What method it proposes is not stated in the order-paper, but it is to be presumed that the delegate has the details of the scheme properly outlined to lay before the conference. In our opinion it should include provision for the nomination of candidates at least six weeks prior to the date of election and arrangements for the individual voting of members, either through their branch, or, better still, through the post office. Not until the Union elects its own representatives will it command either the respect or the power we desire to see it possessed of.