"HEAVIEST END."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 144, 20 June 1934, Page 10

"HEAVIEST END."

FARMING COMMUNITY. HELP DURING DEPRESSION. HARMONY IN INDUSTRY. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON", Tuesday. ' "I feel, in looking 'back over the record of what has been done, that the measures taken were necessary for the successful carrying on of the affairs of the country," said the Prime Minister, the Kt. Hon. G. AY. Forbes, at the opening of the Royal Agricultural Society's conference, referring to the steps taken by the Government to mitigate the plight of farmers during the past few years. "I have no doubt at all that the farming community bore the heaviest end of the depression," Mr. Forbes continued. "The Government had to realise that this was the most important industry in the country, and the first duty of the Government was to aid it. We have been criticised as being a farmers' Government. It has been said that all we see are the wants and woes of the; farmers, but this is the basic industry of this country, and if it failed all the others would ooine crashing down with it. So, in supporting the farmers, we have been strengthening the foundations of the whole of our industries. "Unfortunately an attempt is being made to drive the wedge between primary and secondary industries," said Mr. Forbes. "Anything creating a feeling of disunity and hostility is doing a disservice to New Zealand. It had been said that if we could give Great Britain more favourable consideration in regard to tariffs we would get better treatment from her, but the conditions of entry of British goods into New Zealand are 50 per cent better than in other countries. In any case, it has been made very clear that there can be no bargain that is not common to the whole of the Dominions." Speaking of the necessity for combating encroachment on the wool market by substitutes, Mr. Forbes stressed the urgency of improving the quality of the natural article. In Germany, he said, there were two new synthetic fibres which it was claimed Were the nearest thing to wool it was possible to get. Wool growers could not sit down and let these others get ahead of them. New Zealand wool had many natural advantages, but a great deal of it was not up to the standard demanded by manufacturers. There had been much talk of improving the quality of dairy products, und. the same should be done for* wool.