ATTITUDE OF FARMERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 43, 31 July 1939, Page 4

ATTITUDE OF FARMERS

Sir, —Recently a report of a meeting held by the Farmers' Union in Paeroa, and attended by Mr F. E. was given considerable publicity. Information was drawn either from the local paper at Paeroa, or from a reporter' of on*; of the dailies in Auck land, who took his information from the local reporter, only one being present. A correction has appeared in the local paper, though 'the whole report was .so incorrect as to render any corrections almost impossible. Mr Carter was in full knowledge of the actual and Mr Blackmore, President of the Sub-Province, who was at meeting, was pre. sent at the Dominion Conference recently, and knows the exact position perfectly well. Therefore many of the statements made in the newspaper as to what was said cannot pos sibly be correct. Main points of diver gence from fact arte,, that Mr Carter stated that a ''secret plan" was in existence. Mr Carter said nothing of the sort. He said that if in certain circumstances it were, as appeared Tkely, necessary to take strong action, that the Dominion Conference would be called to decide on the matter. Mr Carter is reported as having said that the guaranteed price was a "ghastly failure." Mr Carter never used those words, bint on tns contrary in accordance with many carried bv the Farmers' Union, merely referred to the actual figure of the guaranteed price, and the effects of rising costs in cancelling out any slight advantage that may have been due to the guaranteed price being higher than overseas receipts. The speaker had nothing to say whatever on the Question of "boycott" but the Sub-Pro-vincial President, in illustrating possib'lities of action, referred to one possibility of the farmers adopting a non-ico-operative attitude for a fortnight, as a gesture, bv not leaving their farms more than was necessary. This was purely in illustration, of various ways in which farmers could take action, and in answer to questions. Another misrepresentation was th° statement that a considerable minority of those present refra'ned from supporting the motion. No request f or funds was made,—the ao!t wa' referred to that another branch had made donations, and all Farmers' TJn'on men present in the made a donation —purely voluntarily two members however stating th ? it thev wo' 1 VI want to know what tho proposals worn for action whon the tim arHved before would commit themselves to endorsing a resolution to take action. I shall be glad if ym can find space to ootcc!; wrong impressions that

renders mav have received with regard to the above matter.

Yours truly. A. E. ROBINSON. Provincial Secretary