THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1927. FARMERS AND ARBITRATION.

Wairarapa Age, 10 March 1927, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 1927. FARMERS AND ARBITRATION.

As might have been expected, the award of the Arbitration Court in the freezing works dispute is being assailed bitterly by farmers and their representatives in different parts of New Zealand. In an outspoken statement published on Tuesday, the Dominion President of the Farmers' Union (Mr. W. J. Polson) said that hitherto that organisation had been opposed to the abolition of the Court, but that such a pronouncement as the last one would go far in forcing it into line with those who sought a change. It seems not unlikely that if matters are left to take their course, farmers may combine in a strong movement aiming at the abolition of the Court, and that this may lead to unsettlement’ in politics as well as in economic affairs.

A large proportion of the farmers of the Dominion obviously are labouring under a strong sense of grievance, not merely in regard to the latest award of the Arbirtation Court, but where the position of their industry generally is concerned. Free expression is being given to the view that the Arbitration Court is helping to force the farmers’ working costs steadily upwards, while the value of products is being kept, or forced, down in conditions over which the farmer has no control. Many farmers contend that they are being compelled to pay indirectly higher wages than they can themselves earn by hard work spread o-vej* very long hours. Unless it can be shown that these contentions are baseless, the farmer evidently has some reason to nourish a sense of grievance \ and to seek redress* It is, of course, the business of the Government and Parliament, as well as of the Arbitration Court, to consider whether the farmer is getting a square deal as things are at present ordered. As a matter of simple justice, the position of primary industry should be examined with a view to determining whether it is being asked to bear more than its fair share of national burdens. Such an inquiry should not only aim at finding means of ensuring that fair justice is done to primary industry in the determination of wages to be paid to other sections of the community, but should take account of the bearing and effect on primary industry of the management of all important branches of public finance, notably State and local body borrowing. Such an inquiry is well worth undertaking both as a matter of justice to farmers and on grounds

of expediency. It is plainly not desirable that the impression should be allowed to develop amongst farmers that they are an unsheltered and unjustly treated section in an otherwise sheltered community.