REPLY TO CRITICS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 106, 6 May 1943, Page 6

REPLY TO CRITICS

FARMERS' EXECUTIVE

"MISDIRECTED ATTACK"

"Neither Captain Rushworth nor anyone else' has said anything so ridiculous as that farmers, or the dairy industry, were 'satisfied with the position,' nor had they other than pleasure in accepting any new assistance that was offering from any quarter," said Mr. A. E. Robinson, provincial secretai-y of the Auckland Farmers' Union executive, when replying to-day on behalf of the executive to the vote of no confidence passed by the Morrinsville branch.

In the first place, said Mr. Robinson, the attack was out of order, as all such matters should be taken in committee, and, secondly, it was misdirected, since the Dominion Farmers' Union executive endorsed stabilisation and had fought strenuously for it since the war commenced. "It is a pity that the 'showdown' that a Morrinsville speaker wished could not have been deferred until the conference in three weeks' time, rather than attempting a show-up in the Press, with only half the picture on view. The plain facts are that the leaders of the dairy industry, not the union, accepted an increase of prices under protest, as an advantage. The union has accepted, also under protest, the holding-down of farming costs at last December level, and this is undeniably a much greater advantage than the very slight increase in prices concerning which there was no such to-do."