Waimate Farmers’ Association.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 158, 28 January 1902, Page 2

Waimate Farmers’ Association.

i\ 10 N TII L Y ° ivl U C TIX G. The Farmers Association held thoir monthly meeting on Saturday, .the President, Mr J. F. Douglas, presiding over a small attendance. Tho Morven branch wrote thanking the A S'ociatioa for their invitation to Mr Lillico’fi lectures. TROTTING AT AUCTIONS. A letter was read from the Agricultural Department covering the Land and Live Stock Auctions Ac/- and evidence taken on it by tho Parliamentary Committee. The Department asked for'the opinion of tho A.G'ciation on the Bill.

The Biil and the evidence were read, tho evidence objecting largely' to “ trotting” ni auctions; winch tho Bill was designed to prevent.

Mr Corcoran asked who the Bill was likely to benefit, the aaoMwwar or "the farmer? It the former they need nob discus': it. Ho could not see much good in tho Bill. Mr Redly said tho buyer would have mere confid-ntee in a sale if there wore no trotting. The Bill would likely do good.

Mr Ward said lie did not rcs whoro any benefit would omn. What farmers objected to waa dealers buying up all tho stock availi’blo and ihea charging tha fanners fictitious prices, and this would not bo provoniad by this Bill. It was decided to discuss this matter further when mors time was available for the purpose.

SMALL BIRDS

The small bird nuisance was bronght • up. Mr Corcoran said something ; should bo done to aba'.s this wide- i spread evil. The County Council were doing good work, having paid this '< season already X’d7 f 4s. The fact of - this money being used-for this purpose ■ and not being available for roads and bridges was a serious matter.. Ail land I holders,.great and small, should Jay \ poison for small birds in some one week ■ in the coldest part of winter. Ho moved that the Government should bo i urged to introduce a Bill for compulsory ; poisoning throughout the colony. Mr Ward said the trouble was tha

introduction of these birds in tho first place. Bofore introducing any animal or bird the Acclimatisation Societies ' 3 should have a fall knowledge of what they wore doing and of the effects likely to follow their actions. Ha instanced the remarkably - prolific nature rabbits, bares and small birds ! had shown after introduction hers aa ' compared with tboir natural homes, i What with the tax on their rates and , the tax on their crops, the small bird 3 was proving a very big pest. Ha ; seconded the modon, adding that the \ Government should not allow tho I introduction of any bird or animal not ; approved of by the Farmers’ Union. 3

Mr Dougl •is said the poisoning question was a moot one. Many people swear by poisoning and others i were equally positive that 'it was a | waste of time and money. Ho himself had put down oats in chaff for four days to the huge delight df thousands of birds. On the fifth day poisoned grain and fresh chaff were put in the same.place, and the birds would not ; look at it. In other districts he knew of birds were poisoned in hundreds. Sparrows bred in millions, each pair raising soma 35 young birds in a season and these in turn set up homes of their own as soon as they could -fly. Ha was of the opinion that old birda'shouhH be bought in the winter time at a good 1 price, as prevention was many times ; better than cure.

Mr Ward said he had been told of a method by which hundreds of birds could bo caught in a night. They :: roosted in tho hedges in winter nights, ■■ and an arrangement of nets and poles i was put over tho hodga and the birds J frightened up by moans of lights. Mr E. 0. Studholme said he was a i strong believer in poisoning. With one ; small bag of poisoned grain ho had -' killed 165 birds of all sgrts. Thera \ was no use one man poisoning and all ] his neighbours neglecting to do so., If i grain were laid systematically in the : faaid weather where the birds fed good] results would be obtained. Something] decisive should be donai soon or they I would bo e&ten out of house and horns. I Mr Corcoran suggested that tie!

Government should offer a bonus for the best method of killing small birds and this was embodied in the resolution;

Mr H. Meyor suggested that they should go back to the old tiraa method of requiring every man to Sod a certain number of birds on a certain day, or failing that, he should pay heavily for all he was short. This money could be put to paying the cost of destroying

the birds. The resolution was carried and it was resolved to forward it to the head office of the union to bs passed round o all branches. WAGES OF FARM HANDS.

Mr Douglas said ha had another matter to bring up. A resolution had been passed at a meeting of the North Canterbury Executive urging farmers to raise the wages and shorten the hours of the farm labourers, who were the hardest - worked and worst paid workers in tbs colony, so as to place them more on an equality with town workers. Mr Douglas said that all would agree that farm labourers were, to a certain extent, underpaid, and all would sympathise with them, especially the married ones. However at present prices of produce nothing could be dona to improve their condition financially. Mr Douglas said that anyhing in the ■shape of controlling the work on a farm within a fixed number of hours a day would prove unworkable. He drew a picture of a farm on winch eight hours was observed as a day’s work, for harvesting, for threshing, for shearing, for mustering. These operations, which were essentially ones to be got eve" quickly, would fill up the whole year. They a!) recognised that an -eight hours’ day was the proper thing, but there must be give and take. In winter for weeks at a time no ploughing or similar work was possible, and men were simply putting in time. They were quite prepared to make up for this in the busy time. In a town business all the employees ware under one roof and were independent of the weather, so that they could have what was denied to farm labourers, regular hours. If it were a question of paying merely for work done, farm hands would bo worse off than at present. A to wn employer could raise the ptica of his goods and so make up more than the increased wages ho is called upon to pay, but a farmer has to compete in the open markets of the world, and so cannot get artificial prices. Those manufacturers who are manufacturing •for outside markets are also beginning to realise this, and things may right themselves in time. Industries may be protected by Parliament by means of duties and bonuses, but the farmer •cannot bo protected. Thou the latter hul to contend with the elements; in fact, there was risk for the farmer all along the line. The speaker said that to his mind the great question to be asked was, are we a manufacturing or a producing country ? There could be no doubt as to the answer. That being •so, why were manufacturers bolstered up at the expense of producers, the latter having to pay grea ! ly increased prices because of such bolstering. Pro-1-ei‘iori was benefitting 50,000 people to the detriment of 700,000. Returning So the question of the farm labourer’s wages, the Chairman said that while uoc able to support a resolution to increase these, ha had a motion to move that would meet the case in that it would give the farm labourer and everyone else the spending power of •80s for every 20" they earned. The motion was that the colony should go in for free trade. All the necessaries of life would bo cheapened and the unrest among the working classes would be stilled. Mr Douglas said he was convinced that a policy of free trade would bring prosperity and contentment to the colony’s workers. If, however, an industry v/ere good he w-js ia favour of giving it a lump sum bonus to let it get well established. If th n it were not able to carry on, it was better that it should die than that is should have ou everlasting bonus in the form of a duty. He moved that the Central Council of the Union should be asked to oppose the resolution to raise the wages of farm labourers, and should do their best to f laugurate a policy of free trade for the whole Union and the whole Colony.

Mr W. F. Ward seconded the motion. He said the agitation’of town Workers had raised wages to a fictitious pitch and this had enormously increased the price cf living. He thought they were very little better off as the increased cost of living was now more than the increase in wages. Farm hands wore formerly as well off m townspeople, but the increased cost of living hit them hard also. The whole trouble was that townworkers got fictitious wages and paid fictitious prices for their goods and he asked where was the advantage. All that was required was free trade and fair play for the necessaries of life. (Applause).

MISCELLANEOUS. Mr Douglas said there were a number of other subjects to come up luifc as the hour was late they would have to be held over. He mentioned the question of examination of horses before being allowed to travel and woolbrokers’ charges as matters to be considered at some future meeting. Mr Ward said he had a number of questions to bring up, The matter of reducing the sheep tax, which now brings in £20,G00, so that it would cover the cost of inspection only and not provide money to help finance other agricultural branches ; the prevention of tho adulteration of beer so as to compel the use of pure barley and hops: tho reduction of tho rates

’ ir tiro insurance to the Union as a whole. The speaker said the matter of f iuig wages for the whole district for h-wasting should be dealt with to prevent trouble. Then threohing wages should bo tho same all over the district. The speaker favoured paying for threshing bj' the hour. Mr J. Hunt said paying by the hour for threshing was the only good way. Paving by tho bushel led to the machines being rushed and the grain no; being properly cleaned. These matters aro to be considered at next meeting of the Association.