FARMERS’ HASTY TOUR

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 940, 5 April 1930, Page 16

FARMERS’ HASTY TOUR

NO TIME TO SEE COUNTRY ASSOCIATION’S SUGGESTION -Describing the recent visit to the "Dominion by the party of English farmers as a “commercialised tour,” 'Mr. S. Austin Carr, at a meeting of the council of the Auckland Metropolitan Agricultural and Pastoral Association yesterday, suggested that in future the A. and P. associations, and similar bodies throughout the country be consulted as to the itinerary of uuch parties. Mr. Carr stated that the party had spent five weeks in New Zealand, but that the members had been hurried so quickly from place to place that they were in no one town for two consecutive nights. Tho farmers had no time to visit the various shows, except for one in Methven, which was too small to give them a correct impression of tho Dominion’s resources, and they saw little of the home life of the men on the land here. During their five weeks* tour, the party paid the Railway Department a total of £ 6,000, being carried hastily from point to point around the country. This seemed very like commercial exploitation when it was remembered that Wirths* Circus, which spent Three months in the Dominion and travelled extensively by special train, paid the Department only £5,000. A motion was passed, to be sent to tho Minister of Internal Affairs, asking that the Government consult representatives of the various agricultural bodies when the itinerary of any party of a similar typo is being Hrranged in the future.