STOCK SALES AT ADDINGTON

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22851, 26 October 1939, Page 10

STOCK SALES AT ADDINGTON

Farmers Discuss Restrictions

PRICES SAID TO

BE REFUNDED

Appeal for Lifting Of

Regulations

Agreement with a resolution passed by a mass meeting of Otago farmers a few days ago that the restrictive regulations on stock sales should be lifted was expressed by the North Canterbury district executive of the New Zealand Farmers Union yesterday. Free reference was made to instructions which it was alleged stock firms had received, and it was stated that after the completion of the last sale butchers m some cases had had refunds of bids m Mr e ’F. O’Rorke (Hororata) said it seemed that stock firms had instructions to see that stock came forward regularly. If stock did not come forward regularly others “would have to perform that function. The Govern ment would see that someone took over the job of “controlling Canterbury and finding out what fat stock was available for each sale. The president (Mr I. L. M. C 1 hardly think they can control stock Mr O’Rorke: Up to a point they can. Mr M Spencer-Bower tCust) saw that stock and station .gents were very very anxious that farmers should send down fat stock to the sales. If the stock did not go down the Government would take control and send the stuff to the abattoirs at export rates.” Firms had instructions as to what they had to do. “The Government at the present time has the farmers body and soul, he added, and suggested that the meeting should support the farmers of Otago in their protest against the socialising of farming. A mass meeting ot farmers should be convened, he added. While farmers would do all they could to assist in the prosecution of the war, they objected to what amounted to the commandeering of produce under false pretences. . . . Any regulations now in force, he took it, would be said to be imposed because of war needs, said Mr J. W. D. Hall, who did not favour supporting the Dunedin remit about the “socialising of farming.” “Farmers are already benefiting, said Mr Hall, “and they will benefit more in the future. Farmers -are getting a fair deal.” “No Justification ” Mr R. T. McMillan said he would like to see the meeting go further than the Otago remit had gone. It was necessary to commandeer meat and wool, but when it came to local sales there was no justification at all. “We will find everything we produce commandeered,” he said, “if we go on this way. I am wondering with a good many others who fixed the price. Have the farmers who produce the goods been asked their idea of the price?” Agreement with Mr McMillan was expressed by Mr R. G. Bishop. According to the rules of selling bids at Addington, bids could not be retracted, but he understood that butchers were outbidding one another, and then after the sale going for a refund. He had heard that after last sale £2 a head had been taken off the price of fat cattle, said Mr A. M. Carpenter. Mr Coop questioned whether “good, sound” butchers would ever seek a refund, but Mr Bishop, while agreeing in part, said that some were doing it. Mr J. E. H. McGrath said that a maximum price had been fixed but no minimum, and other speakers agreed with his contention that the Government was beginning at the wrong end. Supply and- Demand

It would have to be left to supply and 'demand to regulate prices at Addington, said Mr Coop. If the farmer was not going to get higher prices in winter than in summer, he would not keep his stock for the winter sales, and the public would have to eat frozen meat all the winter. The restrictions had been lifted m Auckland, and he thought that they soon would be at Addington, too, Mr Coop added. Mr H. T. Metherell said that it had been threatened in Otago that if the firms could not get farmers to supply sufficient meat, then the Government would do* it itself. Discussion in suppprt of another Otago remit that immediately at the end of war the Government’s “socialising of farm produce and production” be stopped, and the existing methods reverted to, produced a division of opinion. Some members claimed that if that was carried, then if the commandeer stopped suddenly at the end of the war, there would be a serious slump. Eventually it was decided to refer this aspect of the Government’s policy to a committee to frame a new remit. Mr G. C. Warren claimed that no farmer in New Zealand wanted the industry socialised. The whole British Empire was following a policy of “cut out booms arid slumps in the future,” so that after the war farming could be carried straight on without a disturbance. Every part of the Empire was doing that; but it was doubtful how far New Zealand would get with a goyernment under the thumb of trade unions, as the recent public works wage increase showed. The meeting also had before it, and referred to the agricultural committee, a report on the Addington markets prepared by Dr. .1. "W. Weston, of the Canterbury Agricultural College at Lincoln.