Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1911. THE FARMERS' UNION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10253, 1 June 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1911. THE FARMERS' UNION.

The Farmers' Union has spasmodic fits of energy. It comes before the public ionce a year with its Provincial and Dominion Conferences, and, having passed a series of i - esolutions, it lapses into a condition of helpless lethargy. Even its resolutions have very little concern for those who are in authority in the State. The reason is not far to seek. Ministers of the Crown know as well as do the leaders of the Utuion, that the farmers are without cohesion, and that all the fireworks that are let off at tlie conferences are quite harmless. As a matter of fact-, if the President (Mr J. Gr. Wilson) and a few of the leading spirits were to retire from the Union, there would be nothing left. How different it is with the Trades Unions of the Dominion. These bodies are organised to the very highest pitch. They have legislative power which enables them to enforce member s3iip. and when they speak, their voice is heard. The farmers of ;New Zealand have no combination worth mentioning. It may safely be said that not one-fifth of them are identified with the Farmers' Union, and the Union, as a factor- in every-day politics, is an unknown quantity. It is true that the officials

of tilie Union {have adopted certain measures of self-protection when a direct attack thas been made upon large settlers of the Dominion. They have, however, utterly failed to bring the farmers together in a -concrete body, iSO that by their numbers they could resist encroachments upon their liberties and privileges. If it is to be other than a negative power in the land, it will require to see that its organization is improved and made more effective. In this connection, it might reasonably take a leaf or two from the book of the Trades Unions. There are strenuous times ahead for the farmers of this Dominion. Slowly but surely their position is 'being assailed. Aaid unless, they combine and assert their strength in numbers, they will find themselves ere long dn a very awkward plight.