FARM POLICY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 29, 14 November 1939, Page 2

FARM POLICY

REPLY TO MR WALTER NASH.

ACCUSED OF iNSINCERITY, (Per Press Association.' HASTINGS, November 13. “I can quite understand that- Mr Nash cannot accept my statement that when the farmer or any other section of the community lias right of ownership of his own production taken arvay from him ho has lost the most precious thing,” said the Hon. Adam Hamilton, replying to a statement by the Hon. W. Nash. “The policy of the Government, directed by Mr- Nash—State Socialism—is to own and control everything. That policy is based, as Mr Nash has shown a hundred times, on telling the producer that Mr Nash is better able to plan and regulate affairs than they are themselves. ‘ You work and produce,’ he says, but then I take the lot. I have a plan, and I can regulate things. You work as hard as you can, so that my planning is made easier for me. If you have ideas of doing things in some way you yourself would find agreeable, they cannot bo considered. If you happen to protest, I will discipline you, because that it only an organised protest for democratic political ends and, of course, I &m not interested in democratic politics at all. Dictatorial planning is my bulwark and my strength.’

“A more insincere attitude than that taken up by Mr Nash throughout his dealings with the producers it is difficult to imagine. He has assumed the airs of a dictator and the rights of one; all the while assuming an attitude of righteous indignation that anyone could question either hjs motives or his almost divine right to plan everything for everyone. He now brags of his plan of State Socialism, but resents a protest from those from whom he has taken ownership and control. “I point out to Mr Nash again that there is a limit to the amount of dictation, regulations, and planning justified. Mr Nash has gone past that limit. It is not surprising, either, that, to secure a. basis for comparison in defence of his planning, Mr Nash has to use the period of the worst slump the world has known. In itself, that reveals the tragedy of the present circumstances.” i SOMETHING DRASTIC NEEDED. BAY OF PLENTY FARMERS’ VIEW'S. I TAURANGA, November 13. A meeting of farmers in the Town Hall passed resolutions: —■ (1) Calling on the Government to 1 pay a price to enable farmers to increase production. (2) Demanding the Government to give an assurance that the position of the farmer to-day due to the war was not to be used to determine the position when, the war ceased. * (3) Urging the Farmers’ Union Executive to take any action it considered necessary to correct the existing state of affairs of the primary producer not later than the end of February. I (4) Demanding that the Government be asked to fulfil its election promise that the farmer would be measured by the same yardstisk as others. (5) Pledging support to the executive of the union in any action it saw fit to secure &• * price that would enable the farmer to increase production and so help to win the war. The feeling of the meeting was that something more drastic, was needed than the mere passingof {resolutions.