FARMERS' INTEREST.

Shannon News, 25 February 1927, Page 4

FARMERS' INTEREST.

address by mr. lynch. mlny important questions reviewed. An instructive evening was spent by members of the Ohau branch of the Farmers' Union, in the Ohau Hall on Friday, when an address on various mat • ters connected with the welfare of the farming community was given by Mr. O. P. Lynch, of Paraparaumu, president of the Manawatu provincial executive of the Union. The chairman (Mr. H. J. MeLeavey) introduced Mr. Lynch and said he believed that his remarks would prove interesting and beneficial. STRENGTH OF -THE MOVEMENT. Mr. Lynch stated that he was present at the request of the chairman and it was a great pleasure to him to be there and to help to stimulate interest in the Ohau branch. He wished to call attention to the ne>ed for more branches. There had been a movement, emanating from Feilding, to centralise the branches, and it was, a movement that could easily be worked in this district; but what would be the result? It would be the same as in other places where the proposal had been tried —the branch would die out. Hundreds of farmers had been lost to the movement where this suggestion had been carried into effect. A branch could be formed with 15 members, and it was better to keep it going, because it was like a family in the community. What was the use of the executive speaking unless it could have the backing of all the farmers in. New Zealand. The late Mr. Massey had said to Mr. Poison on one occasion, "Who is behind you?" and he replied, stating the number of members. To this the Prime Minister of that time responded, "Go back and double and quadruple the number, and we will hear you.'' The finest thing that had happened for the Union in recent times was the order system of contributions. He urged that branch officials should keep an eye on membership rolls to see that no names were kept on them representing people who had left the district, and to intrview newcomeis with the object of adding them to the membership. This district had been canvassed and organised successfuly, but when it was all over and expenses paid, the provincial executive still had an overdraft. Their bank overdraft, however, would become stronger, because under the order system it would not be necessary to send out a man to collect subscriptions

each year. The delegates to the Dominion Executive had been travelling to Wellington and paying their own expenses until the current .year, but under the order system the executive had been able to pay them 14s a day for their hotel expenses. He would like to see the time come when the provincial executives would be able to pay tlie expenses of their delegates. He would also like to see the Dominion executive with a good backing of solid cash; then the people would realise that they were not tied to a dead horse. Mr. Lynch advocated the appointment of a strong financial adviser to assist the Dominion executive in such matters as market rates, shipping rates, railway freights, and keep an eye on exploiting companies, and tell the farmers where they stood in regard to

business generally. These things wanted looking at from the producer's point of view, whereas m the newspapers they were generally given from the city man's point of view. The price of fertilisers was brought down by 10s a ton through the action of Mr. Goodfellow on behalf of the farmers. The late Mr. Massey hafl secured a great concession for them In the Nauru and Ocean Csland phosphate deposits. Those phosphates should be exploited and the return secured io the form of more butter fat and fat t-tOvK. AGRICULTURAL BANK. Mr. Poison had won their gratitud-3 for his work in aid of an agricultural naiik. The Parliament :irv Commit could have gone a little further and. been somewhat more honest in regard to the scheme, and the farmers would have had something put on the Statute Book that was, of real interest to them. It was for the farmers to insist that the question should be brought, up and the report adopted from the Committee that was set up to investigate the con ditions of such banks in ether countries. He was sure that if the idea was properly worked out it would relieve the tension of.the money marker; almost a : : once. If a man was over his ears if debt, of course, the system would not be of much help to him, but the man who was sound would get long mort gages and at the end of 36£ years would not owe anybody anything, provided that he psid Ids half-yearly ' instalments. Mr Poison was going to .push for the fulfilment of the Commission's report. In the speaker's opinion, the only reason why a modicum of the report was adopted was.to cover the Ban! of New Zealand scheme. He thougl t that the Bank authorities had looked into it when they found there was a possibility of its being taken up. and brought forward a scheme of their own One peculiar thing was that they were going to pay 1\ per cent to those who advanced the money " I! and charge 6-. j per cent to those who borrowed it. Where was the other money coming from? There was something behind this. A tremendous amount of floating debt in the form of overdraft, would be consolidated into these mortgages. It would be a tangible security for their money instead of a note of hand. IREEZING WORKS STRIKE. The farmers had been faced with another difficult position when the slaughtermen at the freezing works refused to work just when the meat was coming on to the market. Who worked more than Mr Poison, who circularised every provincial executive in New Zea land asking the members to offer their services in order to man the freezing works? It happened that most of the boards were manned and when the butchers saw that they turned round and made a compact with the works managers, so that they got the Court to sit and make a fresh award. The freezing workers cut the ground from under their own feet. They had said that the lowest-paid men wer-3 not receiving a sufficient wage. Why did they not eu.\ out the top-notchers? Instead they asked for a ten per cent rise all round, top wages included. They were getting too much. They restricted the output to 92 sheep per man. when they could have killed 192. Some of them were as expert as the shearers, and could deal with as many sheep. Mr Poison gave evidence that those who were killing the sheep were in many cases better off

than the men whose stock they were killing. The speaker hoped that members of the Farmers' Union would give Mr Poison their whole-hearted backing. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. . Speaking in logard to the new Agricultural College Mr. Lynch said that if the Government were sincere in the matter, the College would have been located at Weraroa. They had there the most magnificent block of land for College purposes that eoukl be found in the world. It comprised 802 acres and in ad .itiou a piece on Papaitonga Lak<'> it was within a few hundred yards of the railway station, was well watered, planted and cultivated, and was in one of the most prosperous and healthy districts in New Zealand. Yet the Government turned this site down and paid £6O an acre for 800 acres of the Batchelar estate, on the Manawatu river at Palmerston. Nobody ever saw a place on a river that was not beset by fogS' at certain times of the year. Besides, the land was liable to erosion, and was alongside the town, where the. students would have more inclination to be doing the "la-dee-da" in the Square than learning on the farm. The money which the Batchelar estate cost would have sufficed to put up the first wing of the. College on the Weraroa site, and the institution would have been working now. It had also been decided by the Palmerston Borough, at the instance of the Mayor, Mr F. .1. \ Nathan, to buy the McHardy home- | stead, property, which abutted on the : Batchelar estate, and £IO,OOO was rais- j ed to purchase the house and a few j acres round it. 'This would make aj home for the professors. The speaker had been told in Palmerston that the poll was carried out as though it was for a Parliamentary election people being canvassed and likely supporters conveyed to the poll. No cabs were sent for those who it was thought would vote against the proposal. Would it not have been better to invest'the £IO,OOO in improvements to the Palmerston water supply system, instead of trying to steal the Agricultural College from where it rightly belonged. Sir J. G. Wilson should have stood by Weraroa as a site for the College. OTAKI HOSPITAL. Another matter mentioned by Mr Lynch was the Otaki Hospital, which the Palmerston Hospital Board wished to close down.j The institution had been built up by private contributions aided by Government money. The crowd that filched the Agricultural College tried to filch the hospital. It was sad to see that Sir James Wilson, who was a Avarm friend of the speaker's, backed them up in it, saying that there was no need for a hospital at Otaki and that patients could be taken to Palmerston in the ambulance. The institution was required as an emergency hospital for Otaki's requirements. In the past there was no more stalwart supporter of every movement io advance this district than Sir James Wilson. He had made this his personal end, and the speaker could not understand him turning round and driving a blow into a little institution because he was chairman of the Palmerston Board. They did not want to weaken the Palmerston Hospital, but they did want their hospital at Otaki. He believed ir v.as going to bo Uopt open now by the Board of Health. DAIRY AND MEAT CONTROL. Speaking of* control of produce, MiLynch said that on the Executive they were pretty well divided, but the majority were in favour of it. As far as he could see, it was not fair to condemn a thing before it Avas given a chance, and to condemn it as ruthlessly as Avas done by a section of the press and a section of the people. The dairy control Avas the first definite step j toAvards community sales, Avhich were ! going to save the producer. The day j of individual sales Avas nearly gone, j A Meat Board avms set up Avhich they j had hoped would take absolute control and prevent outside interests from strangli/g a New Zealand industry. The Dairy Produce Control Board having taken charge of the marketing of dairy products, they Avere preventing the same interests from getting a hold on our butter and cheese. He hoped that before five years Avere over the Dairy Board would have "made good," and that the Meat Board would have done the same. The latter had so far confined itself to cutting down expenses, and the big interests overseas had reaped the benefit. It was the producers' duty to point out any failings or short comings of the Dairy Board in a good spirit, Avith a vieAV to having these matters rectified. Co-operative marketing AA'as the only ■ living that was going to give them a fair return for their labour. WOMEN'S DIVISION. The latest phase in Farmers' Union activities was the Women's Division. Good fellowship certainly existed among the Avomenfolk. The division had had its programme draAvn up by. Colonel Powell, the Dominion organiser of the Union, and 'the speaker was released to, see thet he had cut out of i their platform the item r.bout Bible j in schools, the most controA T ersial subject that they could have tackled. He Loped that the ladies' division Av.-'d do some good for itself and it seemed likely to do.. RETAILING FROZEN MEAT. In regard to the question of putting meat on the Wellington market in Avinter, Mr Lynch said that this was brought up because the freezing companies ware dumping stuff into the shops and selling against'the farmers. Attention Avas called to this trouble by the L-2vin branch. The question was thrashed out by the Mauawatu executive, Avho referred it to the Do-

minion executive. The latter could not do anything, and sent the remit on to the Meat Board, requesting' that butchers be compelled to label as frozen all meat procured by them .from freezingAA'orks, as It loAvered the price received by farmers for their Aviliter fat sto-ik. The Board replied that the subject of the resolution Avas outside its jurisdiction and it had no poAver to compel the butchers to act in the direction indicated. The subject Avas only shelved for the time being, because it had opened up the question relating to all products. The sale of NeAV Zealand pre ducts had been based on London parity, which Avas the price of the material in London, less the charges; and they had been losing sight >f the cost of taking the stuff from the farm to the different centres. These questions Avould be looked into by the Dominion executive, and the chances \A r ere that they Avould find that someone else would get a lift up by the remit from Levin. It had brought up quite a big question.

INSURANCE

Mr. Lynch also dealt with the' proposal for third-party risks in the insuring of motor cars. This meant that after a car Avas registered, a premium would have to be paid for the year to cover the risk of a third party in a collision, up to £IOOO. It appeared that the rates at present proposed for this purpose Averj rather high. The chairman thanked Mr. Lynch for his A r isit and address, and stated that members realised the good work he Avas doing and that he Avas sparing neither health nor expense in the interests of the Union.. They all hoped that it would be-many years before he decided to retire from active participation in the Avork. The chairman added that he Avas pleased to see the Levin president, Mr. Denton; he ■ also noticed members present from another branch, and Avas glad to Avelcome them. Mr. A. MeLeavey expressed his pleasure in welcoming Mr. Lynch, Avith Avhom he had been associated in Farmers' Union matters for many years. The speaker, as a director of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance, urged the members to give' their support morally and financially to the movement. Hearty votes of thanks Avere passed to Mt. Lynch and the chairman/ by acclamation. Aftenvards a very enjoyable time was spent in the supper-room, t?.st.y refreshments being proAuded by the ladies' branch, to whom the gratitude of the gathering was expressed in musical honours.