MANIFOLD NEEDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 129, 3 June 1927, Page 9

MANIFOLD NEEDS.

HEW ZEALAND FARMERS. ! APPEAL FOR CITIES* HELP. i ! ME. POLSO2TS CAMPAIGN". j ~~~~~ 1 {By TeJejrapfc.—Press iss-.-ciatioa.) : DCXEDDT, Tharsday. I The Art Gallery Hall was felled to overflowing to-night, when Mr. W. J. Poison, Dominion president of the Xew Zealand Farmers' Union. addressed banners and business people en tie manifdd problems which confronted farmers to-day. The speaker was esthnsiastieaUy. received, and spoke to a keenly interested aodieace. Comparing land in Xew Zealand with •awi in countries of our competitors overseas. Mr. PoLsoa said in Denmark and Sweden land was modi higher Id value and taxes were m»t as heavy, increasins ths cost* of prodaction everywhere. The btrrden of taxes borne by the British fanner was •normoos, bat land inflation or denat*on were by bo means the most serious aspect of the situation to-day, although their effect was very great. The most : important essential in primary products™ was a redaction in costs. This would res/alt very quickly from a hastening of public economy. Expenditure was far too high. Salaries paid to-day in Government services had doubled! AH Government departments wpre costing too mach- Pcbik econorriv d : -d not call for any inequality of sacrinec All sections of the communitv should beer their share of the burden, and it wme tmhr then that the public expenditure would return to ths normal rate of 1911. Agncaltvral Bonds. ; The question of rural finance, said Mr. Feieon, was a serious one. Long term land and mortgage depended greatly on their persistence is hammering at the Gorerement. What they needed almost ss mock was the sympathetic support of the townspeople. Mr. Poison outlined *t great length the methods adopted in America as the result of tie work Eugeee Meyer had done in the interests ™ tanners *y* Speaking of agricnltaral bonds to be issued. >fr.-Poison said it had been stated that the bonds were not Government bonds. He wanted to deny this. They were backed by the Government and were as safe as any investment in the country. Mr. Downie Stewart had himself given that assmace. The lonj:term loans of the Extra] Credits Board would not carry nearly so hirb a rate of interest as that attached to the k<ngj tens loss proposals of the Bank of New Zealand. He did not want to decry the bank's ofl> r . but it did not offer the satisfactory oocditioas connected with the loans of the Raral Credits Board. Fereitm Markets. Mr. Poison said that we most hare more markets for oar prodec*. Great Britain became great by trading with the world. Tariff bargains and concessieae here means to secore more markets aad they should be used at once. -. Tkere was a <J»u*g need for sanity in regard to tariffs. It was useless to bthld tq» tariff walls to protect the prodaction of commodities that could be better produced abroad. "Cwia»emt With Backbone" deeded. The fanners were badly in need of a Guvauieiit with backbone enough to provide them with some security in respect of labour, the costs of which were steadily rising, not only as the result of high wages but in a greater degree in consequence of the endless and eternal restrictions imposed on prod-action by awards. Xo industry should be called on to pay hisher wages onto it had been ascertained without a shadow of doubt that the industry was floarishing enough to bear the harden of higher wages. Wages should be based an what a man produted and not upon what he consamed. That was the chief objection to the fallacy of basing wages on the cost of fiTing alone. It was necessary that *anners should see that at the next session of Parliament the Government should deal with the question on a better basis than the present one. In conclusion Mr. Poison said the farmers had to have lower prodaction costs, cheaper labour and more markets for their product?. Town people would admit that they were not asking for too ameh. If the city wooM help the farmer to these ends the farmer woqM be able to do more for the" city.