ORGANISATION FOR DAIRY FARMERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1917, Page 4

ORGANISATION FOR DAIRY FARMERS.

POSITION IN TARANAKL (By Telegraph—Special Correspondent). ' Christchureh, Feb. 28. Tlie Canterbury Times states:—lt is rather unfortunate that- the Military Service Board should have chosen Tara-i naki as the place to let off steam concerning the want of organisation on the part of farmers for the purpose of releasing men for the front. The comparison withjhe Wairarapa district showed tliat the board as at present constituted as little knowledge of the conditions of farm labor in the two districts. The average Taranaki dairy farmer is a slave to the industry, and many to the mortgagee, the latter in such a mcasuro as to make it remarkable that he should refuse this opportunity to be released from the burden. "Hope springs eternal," ])owever, and the dairy farmer goes along his monotonous way, slaving from morning to nigflt, believing that "some day" he must make good, or, in the more likely alternative,. he will sell out at a profit and pass on the farm, carrying a still bigger burden, to another unfortunato who is not afraid of work. Whilst- not repeating the old "child slavery" charges, it is an undoubted fact that without the assistance of his wife and children the dairy farmer with heavy financial obligations cannot make the business' pay. Fortunes in dairying districts have not been made out of "cow spanking," but out of the rise in prices of land and Btock, or in breeding high-priced, heavy-producing pedigree cattle. The average farmer in Taranaki is milking right up to the full carrying capacity of his farm, and to hia fuilest capacity also. It is no uncommon thigg to see the milking-shed in full swing before four o'clock in the morning, and to hear the milk buckets still rattling at eight o'clock at nifiht. It will take a fair amount of organisation to enable the man so circumstanced" to give a helping hand on the neighboring farm. In agricultural communities it is possible for a farmer to give his neighbor a few days' assistance in. ploughing and harvesting; in the pastoral districts for sheep farmers to assist; each other at mustering and shearing: times; but the cow won't wait. They must be milked twice a day, and every day throughout eight or nine months of the year. Taranaki responded grandly to the call for men in the early days, of the war, and her soldiers were used to •fill up drafts from the South Island. A province almost wholly dependent upon the laud, and with most of its labor engaged in the dairying industry, it has d<sne well to date in tho matter of enlistments. Women are working, always have worked, on the dairy farms, and so are the children. As for organisation, the Taranaki farmer knows a'good deal' about it. The whole prosperity of the province lias grown out of and still depends on co-operative effort. Tho Military Service Board can do a great deal of good for tho farmers and for the whole community if they will administer to the Defence and other authorities some of the "straight talk" indulged in at. New Plymouth, instead of making allegations that farmers are taking concerted action to keep men froja enlisting. The time is. ripe for "concerted, action" on the part of the Government, but the country almost despairs lag it» " """• " ' . r