FARMERS' UNION

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24001, 16 July 1943, Page 4

FARMERS' UNION

PAYMENT FOR PRODUCE

RESOLUTIONS PASSED. BY CONFERENCE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 15. "That this conference views with concern the attitude of the Government, and of the Minister of Agriculture in particular, toward farmers’ problems generally.” This resolution was adopted by the Dominion conference of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union in Wellington after a Tong discussion in committee by 40 votes to 20. After another long discussion, which was not open to the press, two resolutions calling for political action , were rejected by the conference, one by a very narrow majority. After considering a proposal that the Farmers’ Federation . request the British Prime Minister that all future payments for farm produce purchased from New Zealand be remitted direct from the T mperial Government to the appropriate farmers’ organisations in this country “to ensure that there will be no future embezzlement or misappropriation of such moneys by the New Zealand Government,” the conference decided that the Government be urged to pay the whole of moneys received for their oroduce to producers. The conference adopted a resolution supporting a plan of holding wages, costs, and prices as a practical contribution toward arresting inflation, and adding that as the dairy farmers’ position was relatively worse than when the price was fixed on August 1, 1938, the application of the Government’s plan could not be accepted by the industry unless, while the present price was maintained, the Government agreed to a reduction of dairying costs to the 1938 level as from the beginning of the 1943-44 season. Price Control Another resolution adopted was that where the Government considered it necessary to control prices, it should undertake to accept and pay for any surplus produce at that price. The conference protested emphatically against what it termed the rapidly increasing practice of passing legislation by orders-in-council. The resolution urged the Farmers’ Union to do all in its power to get an act of Parliament passed whereby all regulations passed by orders-in-council must be brought before Parliament for discussion within six months, and confirmed within nine months, all such orders to lapse if not confirmed, and not to be renewed either in the original form or an amended form by a further order-in-council, and in any case no regulation to be passed before the industries concerned had been consulted. It was decided to support a Waimate remit on the matter of a farmers’ co-operative freezing works, and to express disapproval of the apparent disinclination of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board to implement Its previously expressed policy of maintaining Dominion interests in the established works of the Dominion. Further, it was resolved that the Dominion and provincial executives take all measures possible to ensure nomination for - election of men who will support a policy of conservation of Dominion interests in established works, and the ultimate establishment of the industry on a co-operative basis. , The Waimate remit was that the Dominion executive formulate a scheme ' for the taking over by farmers on a co-operative basis of the freezing in--1 dustry, or alternatively take a vote 9f suppliers to works to ascertain their attitude toward a small levy on all frozen and chilled meat to provide finance for the purchase of meat works on a co-operative principle.