FARMERS' UNION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 250, 22 April 1912, Page 8

FARMERS' UNION.

Til!': 'BAOKUON'K i\V Till'. ■COUNTRY. By Telegraph—Press Association. Ashburton, Last Night. In moving the adoption of tin; report and balance-shei t at the annual meeting of the Ashburton branch of the Farmers' Union this afternoon, the chairman (Mr. G. AY, Leadley) congratulated the farming community on the position they found themselves in that day, after the close of another year. The position was fairly satisfactory, and this could not be said at the same time last year, when j the failure, of the crops and the scarcity of feed made the position of the farmer a very trying one. When spring came they were carrying insufficient stock to consume the feed, and this was responsible for light woo! clips. The season just ended had, however, been very successful, and the plains farmer had never had a year like it. The yields of grain had been phenomenal. The labor question was again before them, and he referred to it because of an article mat had appeared in the Guardian calling attention to bad workmanship in building stacks. What was said was quite true, and what was worse than that the same tiling applied to other branches of farming work. 'He had that morning seen some ploughing that was disgraceful. It seemed that men had lost pride in their work, and with regard to stacking they could not get that efficiency and knowledge in a workman that was necessary, lie knew a man of 75 years of age who had had to build his own stack because he could not get a competent man to do the work. It was not the farmers' fault that the work was done in such a perfunctory way. The prices of staple products were good, and there! were prospects, with a probability of Continental markets being thrown open, of even better prices. With regard to dairying, the outlook was distinctly good, anil he believed that in a short time they would find more farmers devoting their attention to dairying. Speaking of the political situation, Mr. Leadley said that he did not think it was quite fair that the new Ministry should have been sub--1 jected to so much carping criticism as had 'been levelled at it. He saw no I reason for the sneers at the' lion. Thos. Mackenzie, who, he thought, should be ) commended for his courage in stepping into the breach. The same things that I were being said of him had been said , of Mr. Seddon, who had falsified all statcI ments made against him. One thing ■ stood out preeminently, and that was the maintenance of the standard of exports. The fact that our exports had fallen away by £1,000.000 called for serious attention. Another matter to be considered Avas the large proportion of people who lived in towns, instead of helping to fructify the land.