FARMERS IN CONFERENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3197, 25 May 1909, Page 4

FARMERS IN CONFERENCE.

The annual conference of the New Zealand Farmers' Union in the Wellington Provincial District will take place at Eketahuna to-day. A glance at the list of subjects for discussion impresses one with the fact that the Farmers' Union movement has grown enormously since its inception a few years ago. During the short period of its existence the Union has accomplished a vast deal of very valuable work, and that not only of benefit to farmers, but to the country as a whole; indeed it is impossible to separate questions of importance to farmers from the national welfare. Take as an instance the strenuous and timely resistance that the Farmers' Union displayed in regard to proposed land legislation, which really seemed to be nothing less than the thin end of the wedge towards eliminating the freehold tenure. As a matter of fact the land legislation of this country is now in a condition far from satisfctory. In this connection there is still a tremendous amount of good work for freeholders to accomplish in the interests of national welfare. Among the members of the Farmers' Union are a number of men of real solidity, deep thinkers, and widely read, and who have had long experience of land tenures from a practical standpoint. The frothy city Socialist may in his ignorance shriek against the freehold , tenure, but probably no known tenure in the world would induce him to play the part that thousands of settlers in this Dominion have done in the work of breaking in and making the country. It i 3 quite impossible in a brief article to refer seriatim to the order paper, but in connection with the foregoing remarks it may be mentioned that a motion "that the' Government be urged to amend the Land Act so as to give Crown Tenants the option of purchasing ths freehold of their lands at the original value, and the payment of j the difference between the 4 per cent, now charged in the lease in perpetuity and the 5 per cent, charged to tenants with the right of purchase, and the sale of all future lands shall carry the riant of purchase with limitation of area." will be moved. A portion of the order of business includes, of course, the election of a Provincial Executive and delegates to the Colonial Conference. Mr J. G. Wilson, of Bujls, is the retiring President, and Mr J. C. Cooper, of Tane, is the retiring Vice-President. We trust that the Conference will be as productive of good as it is possible for such conferences to be, and we wish the members every success in their deliber~ ation3.