TOWN DWELLERS VERSUS THE FARMERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 216, 11 September 1911, Page 7

TOWN DWELLERS VERSUS THE FARMERS.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—The toilers on the land are mostly sick and sorry at tho attitude taken up by the town dwellers—and more particularly the trade unions—in most of the large centres of New Zealand, in regard to our rural industries, and particularly as applied to the question of tho price prevailing for butter during the last few months. Enough surely has been -explained through the press accounting for the shortage of this indispensable article, and showing that the shortage occurred through the drought conditions existing during the late autumn, and after that period generally considered profitable to ship to London I know for certain that some factories k. New Zealand would have even forwarded a later shipment of butter to London than was sent, had rain occurred; but tho drought continuing, and the milk supply dropping rapidly 'throughout all the chief dairying districts of New Zealand, convinced tlieni that there was likely to be a shortage of butter before the spring make, and they held back what otherwise would have left our shores. I would like to say 'to your town denizens, that even had the whole butter in New Zealand last'autumn been under State control, there would have been the same shortage as was experienced. The best judgment was used, and nobody could foresee that the drought was likely to be so prolonged. Similar conditions may not occur again in the next ten years. As for monopoly in New Zealand of any products of the soil, the idea is purely a townsman's hallucination. The farmers' market is England chiefly; and England he looks to to take tho products of his land. And yet has to pay through the nose for the necessaries of life equally with the town dweller. Trade Unionism has made things equally dear to the farmer, and in this respect

he is bearing the heavier end of the burden. The most cutting thing to tho land toilers is to see those in the towns 'taking up an antagonistic attitude towards that class on which the town dweller is mostly depending for liis prosperity. This attitude is similar to "cut" ting off the nose to spite 'tho face." They are bound to hurt themselves mostly in the end. Through your col-

umns you have more than once deprecated the cry of "town against country," and wisely so. A bi'tter feeling has been stirred up through the country districts, by the antagonism shown in regard to one of our principal rural industries, by the attitude and utterances during tiTe last few months emanating from the town unions, and those responsible for it will be well advised 'to stop just where they are, for the thing lias gone far enough. It is as well that they at once understand that the butter industry of New Zealand is mostly co-operative, and with the farmers' hard-earned savings invested. in it. It is just as well oilso for our trade union friends to understand what the co-operative dairy industry has done for Denmark, and all it means to that country; and in New Zealand to endeavour to c6nline themselves, and their attention, to their splendidly protected. industries in the town; their limited hours of labour, and their many little luxuries foreign to 'the toiler oh the land. They are highly-privileged individuals if they were not too blind to see it, otherwise why do many gravitate to the town and stick there? But, when the trade unionist moves out of his proper sphere, and wants to meddle with the farmer and the crural industries, he can certainly make up his mind there is going to he serious trouble for him at the ballot-box in the near future. I do not intend to he drawn into a correspo' .dence on the above matter through your esteemed paper—a paper I have subscribed -to for over twenty years—but as a man bred and brought up in the country, and as a true Liberal, and knowing country conditions, I write the foregoing as a protest against the unfriendly attitude of the trade unions, through their representatives, against that class of people who arc in reality their greatest benefactors, and to whom they owe mostly their present state of prosperity and general well-being. It is a bad sort of cur that turns to bite the hand of his benefactor, and the sooner this prolonged irritation is stopped by those responsible for its cause to much the better.—l am, etc., RURAL INDUSTRY. Pukekohe, September G, 1911.