FARMERS’ UNION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1939, Page 9

FARMERS’ UNION

MARTINBOROUGH BRANCH meeting. : DETERIORATION OF LANDS. (“Times-Age” Special.) Th president, Mr A. B. Martin, presided over a good attendance of members at the annual meeting of the Martinborough branch of the Wairarapa Farmers’ Union held at Martinborough yesterday. Th chairman referred to the great loss sustained through the death of a foundation member, the Hon A. D. McLeod. Members stood in silence as a mark of respect. The election of officers resulted:— President, Mr A. B. Martin (re-elec-ted); vice-president, Mr R. T. Parsons: delegates to provincial executive, Messrs A. B. Martin, W, B, Martin, R. T. Parsons, A. Linton and W. H. Donovan; delegates to inter-provincial conference, Messrs A. B. Martin and A. Linton. In his annual report the president made particular reference to the question of the deterioration of lands and erosion, which had grown until it was beyond the individual, and had become a national question. _ ... As a remit to the inter-provincial conference Mr A. Sutherland moved that the conference urge the preservation of the natural enemies of the rabbit, i.e., stoats and weasels, etc. As a result of the extensive drainage experiments completed in the district recently it was decided to hold a winter meeting in conjunction with the Young Farmers’ Club, to be coupled with a demonstration in the afternoon and an illustrated lecture in the evening. , 1 In view of the shortage of suppiemen • tary fodder, hay, etc, Mr J. Watson, provincial secretary, was instructed to write to all adjacent provinces in an effort to locate hay in quantities in the event of lack of supplies in the winter. The meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to the chair.