FARMERS' UNION CRITICISED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 124, 27 May 1932, Page 6

FARMERS' UNION CRITICISED.

GOVERNMENT HELP APPRECIATED. (To the Editor.) Up until the present those men styling themselves the Farmers' Union have been an amusing, if harmless, body, but the utterances of some of these frothy ones at last week's conference seem likely to bring the genuine farmer, who is staying at home and honestly tryin" to better his position and meet his Obligations, into a position from which he will find it hard to escape, unless we wake up and take some steps to counteract the malicious, untrue and damaging statements made. First they say the Government is showing harsh and unjust treatment to its mortgagors. Is one of the latter, owing nearly two years' interest, I' can give these statements an unqualified denial. I have received from the State Advances Office leniency and consideration to an extent not expected, and it is only just that such treatment should be acknowledged. The same remarks apply to my second mortoa"-ee, and because of the consideration received I shall pull round comfortably in twelve months' time. Another statement: "We are the backbone, etc., and unless we <ret consideration shall not export our produce." Did your reporter really hear th;s, or is it just a figment of his imagination? Honestly I cannot believe that men like Messrs. Mellsop, Duxfield and one or two others would allow such a statement to bo made and go unchallenged. Take another one: "An inquiry would do "no good if instituted by such a Government as we have had for some time." Does the gentleman (of the stockyard) realise that the majority of the people put this Government into power and the same majority of people are quite content to help "such a Government" in its exceedingly difficult and thankless task of trying to remedy the many evils with which we are beset? Do Ueso selfsame wiseacres realise that this self-same Government has helped the farmer keep his job by reducing interest 20 per cent, cutting" rates 12* per cent, rebating and waiting, and sometimes altogether going without rent and interest? At the same time some of us farmers are only helping by sitting by our firesides smoking cigarettes and bemoaning our fate, instead of getting down to it and making our properties produce more, thus enabling us to pay interest and help our country. Of my own knowledge I could name several such within a radius of six miles of my homestead. If some of those who want principle as well as* interest "cut" had the farms given them they could not make them pay. I cannot too strono-ly emphasise the fact that these men do not represent the views of the farmer class, for the great majority of us are not members of the so-called union, and certainly are not Communistic in onr views.