Prime Minister Talks to Farmers

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 107, 27 July 1927, Page 13

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. Tuesday. HPHE Farmers’ Union Dominion Conference 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 j to tell you clearly that I never said i such a thing at all. Others have said | it, but I have not said it. lam there j 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- j

ference, or the representatives of the conference to consider various matters with the Ministers of the Crown later and consider in detail the various proposals now before the conference. They would understand j that Ministers had information at j their disposal which was not available to everybody, regarding questions affecting our country, its people I and industries. TRADE BALANCES j In March we were £lO millions i j short of the previous year’s purchas!mg power. The Government had ! done its best from its point of view, jit was not the responsibility of I Government to take men oil 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 wi £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 I and the increase ill 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 not been idle and it is our job to see how we can improve his ■ capacity and increase production still I further.”