FARMERS’ UNION.

Shannon News, 27 May 1924, Page 3

FARMERS’ UNION.

ORGANISATION URGED. The meeting of farmers 'Under the auspices of the New Zealand Farmers’ UjiiiQji, held in tlie Council Chambem, .Shannon, on Friday evening, did not draw a very large attendance. Mr 0. 1\ Lynch, president of the Manawatu provincial executive of the union, nresided. 'ln introducing the speakers >1 the evening, Mr G. Anderson, Dominion vice-president, and Mr E. H. Murney, of Otago, members of the ,• Oomhiion executive, who are touring the Dominion on the Union’s behall and addressing branches, Mr Lynch said lie would like to congratulate . Shannon ion two recent achievements, viz., the resuscitation ol' the Union and being the first town to be lighted from MangahaO'. He s taled Messrs Anderson and Murney in company with Capt. Colheck and Mr Duxfleld had already practically, addressed ail tlie branches in the North Island. Mr Anderson, in opening his ad-

dress, briefly sketched die develop- 1 merit of the Union from its inception 24 years ago, when Mr Glass, a North Auckland farmer, instituted the movement which had spread right through New Zealand. /A very big mistake had been made, ho said, when the Union was being started, in fixing the subscription Lb low. Tlie result was that they had got a large membership bi t could do little for lack of funds. When it was found necessary to raise me subscription, dissatisfaction was onused which would have occu»rid had u been fixed at that figure in die first place.

Another mistake was ?i 'allowing the brunches- to dictate the financial policy of the organisation. The Farmers’ Union was the only body of Hi kind where this was allowed. The correct thing to tfo was that sue' matters, should be decided by a < antral committee who would be able to decide such questions on broad lines of Dominion wide policy. ORGANISATION OF THE UNION The speaker outlined the 'u’ga'i nation of the Union showing i s democratic nature throughout :• in too fact that .the branches .elected representatives to the sub-provincial end provincial conferences these in turn being represented at the. D.minb.r conferences held yearly in Wellington.

The first essential of success, continued ,the speaker, was that the individual farmer should take a personal interest in the organisation. Many farmers will tell ah organiser that there was no use in them attending meetings. That was a mistake. It wars only by meeting frequently and keeping in touch with what was being done that .the interest which was essential to success could be assated. It was necessary a,lso Vthat. subscriptions should be paid and more, paid promptly. Too many farmers had the idea that as long as they paid their subscriptions at the end of tlie financial year- they were all right. They forgot that the Union had to get through the year on limited /finances in consequence and an iinprovemient in. this was desirable. ' ACTIVITIES OF THE, UNION.

—Tire abig- tlrfng Terr- which the /Union, had striven when it'Was first formed had been .the freehold tenure. They had had a hard fight in this case hut they had won' otit because they had been loyal to each other and to their organisation. Tlie. Union was in a better, position now. Tliey had the advantage of 24 years’ experience and if ttiev got behind a movement and pushed, for-it. solidly there, was no party or interest in New Zealand that oou Id stand against therm The planks of the -Union’s platform to-duv w*erd an Agricultural jßajnk, Control of Shipping, Pooling of Produce and the Abolition of the Land Tax. When it was remembered that 917 per cent Qf the exports of New Zealand were primary products it would be recognised bow big tlie farming industry was and the necessity of watching its interests. During the boom ptuiod they had all heard a lot of tbe wav the farmer was profiteering and other antagonistic statements of the sort, but when tbe slump came those who had talked loudest were forced to recognise just how the prosperity of the farmer depended on the prosperity of the farmer. NEED FOR CONTROL.

Regarding the. quality ol' the produce exported from New Zealand, there was no question hut that it was second to node produced throughout the world. The" butter which made made up such a large proportion of the country’s wealth was equal, and perhaps superior, to, Denmark’s, and, N.Z. Jamb was unequalled. The produce was right, but the same could not be 'said of the markets. When a manuiacturer in any branch of indus.fr y made an article, he. looked upon the sale of that article as art essential part of his operations. The farmer on the contrary did everything towards producing a, first-class, article and then left the disposal of it to somebody else. New Zealand was not the only place where tills was done. It had been the same in England, but there they had, as the result of the slump following the war, awakened to the necessity of organisation and the handling of"their own produce. There had been set up the Linlithgow Commission which had arrived at identically the same conclusions as had the Farmers’ Union in Now Zealand. The Union was the pioneer of marketing reform such as was being done bv the Control Boards. Of these the Meat Board had. been the first and the speaker l'elt confident that the small opposition to this amongst the vested interests had been the result of a feeling amongst the capitalists that they would allow 1 the farmers to go ahead with the'scheme so that ■ when they made a failure of it, it would sicken them of any further wish to organise. WEAKNESS OK MEAT BOARD.

The activity of the meat pool <n the future depended on the producer: it, could be'made absolute or otherwise. The weakness of the Board, however, was that it was elected on what, was known as the American Electoral College system. Each district was parcelled out according to

the number of sheep it contained and men elected to tlie board on that basis. The system left itself open to a considerable amount of-wirepulling and until the Farmers’ Unions insisted on a more popular policy of representation the Board would not be a success.

One of the objects of tlie pool was to do away with the multiplicity in brands in a given shipment. In one such shipment sent Home there were 700 different brands. It had been suggested that a rule be made that no consignor should ship less than 300 carcases, but the effect of this would Ibe that the small man would be \ forced to sell to speculators at the I latter’s price. It was then suggested by a member of the pool that , there should be a works pool, but that again was open to the objection that from tlie time the line went into the works the producer had no control over it. In New Zealand the freezing works acted in a dual capacity: they froze for producers End they also speculated. If under the works pool scheme they landed a shipment, of meat in London on a dull market, it was only reasonable' to suppose that" the Freezing Company’s own meat would get first consideration and the pooled meat come off a bad second. The only thing was to have their own sales manager at Home and this miyi would be responsible to the organisation for all sales made. CHILLED BEEF., Early this year an attempt was made to send Home a trial shipment >f chilled beef from New Zealand. The process uf chilling 1 was a new one, and the patentee, Mr Linloy. had come out to New Zealand to superintend the shipment. Shortly after the ship sailed a question. was asked in’ the House of Parliament as to whether the process of chilling employed would not have an injurious effect on the health of those eating the beef. It was a small thing, but a straw shows which way the wind blows. It was a deliberate attempt on the part of the vested interests .to prejudice' the minds of the consumers against the system . Another thing was thjjt in this case, time was the essence ‘of the contract, and yet the boat hud been kept for 30 days on the* coqst of New Zealand after the shipment had been completed. & DAIRY CONTROL.

There had been a fairly wide-spread feeling amongst a section of dairy farmers, MiiAnderson stated, that control in the dairy industry; was not •needed, but the idea, was based almost wholly on a misconception of the position/ ’ As was proved when the poll was taken last year, the industry as- a whole was solidly behind the scheme. They had elected a Board and he thought' he ciiuld say safely that it. was a Board that would look after the farmers’ interests. -It was a good Board because every farmer had a. voice in it,s selection, but still it might, be better inasmuch as it "Was elected on a,ticket, which was not in accordance with truly democatic principles. The Farmers’ Union had considered the question .pretty thoroughly and considered that the “ward” system of election was best, Under this system the country would lie divided ijb,to pretty Rig districts, but every man would have an opportunity of voting for the man he knew .something about., instead of the present less satisfactory system. SHEEP-FARMER EXPLOITED.

‘Personally he tqok a greait, interest in pooling and when tlie slump caine it had .seined to him iniquitous that the farmer should have to sell his produce below the cost, of production. If the consumer had got the benefit it would not have been so bad, but that was not, sio. During the slump they paid more, for woollen goods ,tban during the war. They had been told tliat there .'was 2,000,000 surplus bales -of woo] in tho world and until this was got rid of, big prices could not be expected. Since then it had transpired that the .amount in stock was the normal carry-over from one year to another. yet this had been used to engineer a. slump in the wool industry which had put many farmers off their farms, and crippled every sheep farmer, in the. country. OPERATIONS OF B.AAV.R.A.

Tn Ausfra.lia, a,t the beginning of the slump there was a 'big lot of wool stored up, some of it farmers’ wool and more of if belonging to speculators. The speculator wn« not. prepared to lake less for the wool than he paid J'or it, and so there had been set was what- was commonly known as “Bawra.” The executive cost in this '.organisation had readied £60,000 per year, two men receiving £IO,OOO each, but during the time it had been in operation it. had returned. £28,000,000 to the shareholders. The business men, had recognised that it would be folly to act separately and they had combined in their own interests.

Recently there had been great opposition when it was proposed t.o continue the Bawra, in operation. Tlie 'reason was not difficult, to explain: most of the shareholders were speculators wild did not do;sirc that the farmers should get the benefit of the organisation. How it. wa« going t.o go be did not know, but from a recent Bradford paper he had seen that the proposal to continue Bawra had caused great excitement. in Bradford, which looked like a good reasofi for keeping it going. EXTENT OF WOOL-INDUSTRY IN NEW ZEALAND.

The number of sheep in New Zealand was 23,000,000 and nut of these there wore 16,000,000 crossbreds. Experience of thesp showed that’it was not possible to fix a quality with a crehsbred animal—oho I Would throw to the sire and another to the dam—so that among these sheep there was a great variety of wool, the range being from 36’s to 50’s. This , being so he did pot think that, for the present a.t any rate, any attempt should be made to do away with the middleman . Tn New Zealand, out of 23,000 sheepfarmers, half .owned flocks of from 500 down, whilst another five ribouserid owned flocks or from 5000 down.' It had been proposed that the whale of the clips of If he Dominion should be -assembled for re-classing, hut. this-would he a. costly and clumsy way • of doing

things, it would be much better tliat the classing Should be dqne in tlie stores of the existing agents through whom *tlie farmer lias been in tne habit of consigning liis” wool. ORGANISED SELLING. Another tiling was tliat New Zealand was 13,000 miles away from tlie market, and individual farmers and brokers canid not have their fingers on .the • market at Home u,s much as was desirable. They should have a manager at tlie other end.. The wool would he pooled and sold according to quality, the price being fixed on this basis. Now every man put on a reserve, not necessarily according j» the value of the wool, and the result was hardly satisfactory. Under the system lie had outlined a buyer could buy exactly' bis requirements and know that he had the guarantee of the Board -behind him as to the standard he was purchasing. POINTS TO BE REMEDIED. Tlie perennial question of “draft” in wool must he settled once ami for all and until they could speak authoritatively as am organised body they, would not got justice. The deduction : of III) in every lUOfbs might have been justified when the farmer sent in his wool in sacks and all sorts of dirt, etc., was included, but it was so no lunger. ; The loss to Nejw Zealand front this imposition had been estimated by.Mr Tesclimeker at £BO,OOO. Tim fact /that wool packs were not . paid for was another' grievance. The sheep farmer, was the only man in the wiorld who was not paid for the container in which lie marketed his produce. As wool-packs cost on an average £BO,OOO to £90,000 per year' this was a Ibig thing. ORGANISATION THE GREAT ESSENTIAL. The speaker dealt at length with' the need for organisation throughout every hr,•inch of the farming industry in New Zealand, instancing the late war as an iJlustratiion of The* value of central .control, It bad been, stated, lie'said,'that iarmers could not run a. bqsincss for themselves, and whilst there might be some justification for the sneer, tliey would, with the' resources at their command, be able tiy secure tlie best brains in the. world to look after their*interests, just as the shareholders -of any other organisations did. During tlie slump year, a levy oj id per Lb on the meat 'exported would have brought in £160,000, which would give spine idea.' ul the resources of the farming community if combined. /OBJECTS OF CONTROL.

It. must not, be thought, for a molneul that the fanner was out, to exploit. his fellow sufferer-—tlie consumer iti the towns. These were not the people who got. the benefit, ol the far, tners’ disorganisation. What they were . out to do was to out put the middle-man as much as possible. There were tom many people getting a rakeoff from the burners produce at present and this was wh.at they were out to combat. AGRICULTURAL BANKING. Mr Merney, speaking in sup port of the agricultural bank, explained that tlie idea was an old one, originating ill Germany in 1765 and taken up bv Denmark in 1850, followed. by France, Italy, and Denmark. The United States had taken up tire idea in 1916 and New South Wales in 1923. Under the system the corporate credit of the iarniing community was utilised for the purpose of borrowing money. Brandies could he started by a number of iarmers pledging their properties, bonds being issued, for nii.e amount, Those Ponds were, in the countries whore the scheme was in operation, readily saleable. The hank acted as.agent bctweoii thosewho had money to Jend and those who wished to borrow, neither /of whom knew the other. As such tire hank was responsible ior the interest on the loan, and the boa-rover need trot fear that' the lender would close down on him, as the hank would vaidi his interests. 1 In New Zealand tire current rate °l 'merest was V per cent. In Germany it was -1 per cent, to 5 per cent; in Denmark 3.j per cent, to 4 per cent; and in -the United Stales and New South Whiles 5f per cent. On his personal estimate, the farmers of New Zealand owed £J6O,UOO,OUI> on registered mortgage. In addition they owed another) on unregistered mortgages, w*a itutal of £300,000,000. The difference between 5 per cent, and 7 per ctfnt. interest on that sum was £6,000,000 per annum.jwphe speaker quoted eminent authorities in support ol the system, saying jJbat it Denmark were working under the same conditions as New Zealand, four-fifths -of the fanners in the country would fail to carry bn. In Denmark the greater part of the public and private wealth was invested in the agricultural banks. FARMERS’ UNION INSURANCE SCHEME.

Mr Me nicy-spoke in support of the Mutual ’lnsurance scheme evolved by the Farmers’ Union 18 years ago, ;v n,tl which bad only been" taken up by four provinces,'instead of the whole Dominion. Owing to this ,scheme the farmers were getting a reduction of 50 per cent, on insurance rates. Eighteen years ago the rate on farm building was 13s id and it vyys now 5s per £IOO. He explained that the premium bonds formed the capital of the company and every policy balder signed one. The, minimum call w;is 1 per cent, on the amount insured and the maximum ton times that amount, so that- in a,n insurance of £SOO the minimum would be £5 and the maximum ten times £1 5s (at 5s per £100) or ■g 12 lbs.. However, during 'the 18 years the scheme was in operation, no call bad been made under the policy fund. A hearty vote .of thanks was accorded the speakers on the motion of Mr Waring Taylor, seconded by Mr R. L. Tippler.