FARMERS’ PROFITS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 January 1921, Page 7

FARMERS’ PROFITS.

REFUTING ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS. A PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN. The Dominion Executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union has forwarded the following letter to branches throughout the Dominion for the consideration of members:— “The Dominion Executive of the Far. mers’ Union feels that it is time that important questions which affect the farming community should be presented to the public in a way which will counteract the pernicious and erroneous statements published in the daily papers from time to time. Farmers frequently read false and exaggerated reports of the supposed profits of the producer; his alleged exploitation of the public, and the comparative ease and luxury of his life. These reports should be answered and contradicted. “At no period in the history of the Union has the future appeared more hazardous for the producer. Prices for wool, meat, cheese, oats, potatoes, and other primary products are falling rapidly, .while the cost of working his farm 1 is steadily increasing. Unless such ridiculous misconceptions are combated and the sympathetic co-operation of the rest of the community obtained, his burdens are going to be heavier than ever, because the community will believe that he is best able to bear them.

“The Dominion Executive, in order to place the true position before the people of New Zealand, has set up a committee to organise- and manage a publicity campaign. It is intended to engage a trained writer who shall write suitable short articles to the daily Press dealing with the farmer’s work, his losses, his disabilities, and his handicaps. It is proposed to ask every Union secretary to act as a scout for infomation and material which can be used for such a purpose and to enlist the help of members of the Union generally. These articles shall be submitted to the committee for approval and then published by them in the leading New Zealand newspapers. It is intended to make them short, readable cross-heads and paragraphs of general interest. “For this purpose money is 'required, and a fund is to be established. The Provincial Executive are urged to bring this matter strongly before their branches; to point out to them the importance of such a campaign, and to ask them to subscribe, not only from the branch funds, but to obtain substantial subscriptions from such individual members of the Union as care to give. The executive believes such a plan to provide a form of insurance.”