WHEAT FARMERS’ CASE

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20277, 20 August 1937, Page 9

WHEAT FARMERS’ CASE

THE SOCIAL PROBLEM. S MINISTER’S SYMPATHY. DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WAIMATE SOUTH. Thursday. ® After speaking to many hundreds of wheat growers and their wives during * a tour of Canterbury, the Minister of Industries and Commeroe, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, addressing a large f meeting here, said he was Impressed r with the social problem affecting the countryside and promised sympathy Q and consideration for the domestic difficulties of farmers’ wives. The € Government, he said, would have to c consider the provision of facilities to make country life attractive and stop f tepopulation, and this involved housing t ’arm workers. c "I have met the growers indlvidu- j lily and as groups, and at very large g neetings throughout Canterbury, and { found them modest in the presentstlon of their case. Rationally and reasonably they presented their difllcul- a ties and a request for a reasonable ‘ price to enable a reasonable standard ( of living for their families, to which f they are as much entitled as any other section of the community.” Effort* Appreciated. \ He paid a tribute to the growers for ' their efforts to meet his appeal for c increasing acreage. Despite the con- v troversy over price fixation and the dlfßoultles of weather conditions locally, they had attempted to meet J the request in this national matter. I Mr Sullivan promised sympathetic 1 consideration of the wheat-growers’ t request and suggested the possibility s of a five-year development plan for ( the whole wheat industry. t The Minister proceeded to Oamaru f to-day further to Investigate oondl- i tlons in the wheat areas. (