Prime Minister Talks to Farmers

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 106, 26 July 1927, Page 9

Prime Minister Talks to Farmers

GOVERNMENT HAS DONE ITS BEST IN the course of his address at the opening of the Dominion Conference of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union in Wellington to-day the Prime Minister declared the Government had done its best for the farmers and asked for co-operation in developing his policy He struck an optimistic note regarding depression and expressed the opinion that the country had turned the corner.

press Association. WELLINGTON. To-day. THE Farmers’ Union Dominion Con- ± ference opened to-day, and was addressed by the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. J. G. Coates. Mr. W. J. Poison, president, delivered his address on the future of cooperation. Mr. Coates said Mr. Poison covered quite a lot of ground, but there were one or two remarks which required some qualification. “One. at least, is the statement that ‘Mr. Coates was the man who got things done.’ I want to tell you clearly that I never said such a thing at all. Others have said it, but I have not said it. I am there in my position to do my duty, and to initiate and complete a policy, the policy that was initiated at the last election, and one which I hope to he able to put into complete operation.” Continuing, Mr. Coates said that in the whole Empire there was not a Government that had the representation from the farming community that New Zealand had, and he asked the conference to consider that the largest proportion of the party of which he was the head was composed of farmers. He himself was a farmer. He thought in the terms of the farmer, and in the terms of the difficulties of the primary producer in New Zealand as well as all over the world. It was a world-wide depression or disturbance that affected the primary producers. He wanted the con- /

ference, or the representatives of the ce to consider various matters witn the Ministers of the Crown later and consider in detail the various proposals now before the conference. They would understand that Ministers had information at their disposal which was not available to everybody, regarding questions affecting our country, its people and industries. TRADE BALANCES In March we were £lO millions short of the previous year’s purchasing power. The Government had done its best from its point of view. It was not the responsibility of Government to take men on and employ them continually. Up to May 31 the exports were, roughly, £27 millions, against £25,500,000 last year. Imports totalled £18,562,171 compared with £20,999,905 so that in regard to the trade balance we were better off by £3,926,716. He thought that showed the effect of economy, the tightening up of imports and the increase in production. The latter was largely the result of the efforts of the primary producer. In his opinion we had turned the corner. The output of primary products was most satisfactory. “The farmer has lot been idle and it is our job to see how we can improve his capacity and increase production still further.”