WHEEL TRACTORS FROM U.S.A. —♦—

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25945, 27 October 1949, Page 4

WHEEL TRACTORS FROM U.S.A. —♦—

FEDERATED FARMERS’ PROTEST NO HCBNCES” FOR FIRST HALF OF 1950 “How are we going to get the increased production the Government has asked for if we cannot get tractors?” asked the chairman of the North Canterbury provincial executive of Federated Farmers (Mr L. C. Gardiner) at a meeting yesterday. Mr Gardiner was commenting on a statement by Mr G. A. Nutt, chairman of the agriculture section, who said that there was no allocation for licences for wheel tractors from dollar sources in the first half of next year. There were 1615 farmers on the federation’s list waiting for light wheel tractors and 1593 waiting for heavy tractors, said Mr Nutt. Replying to a member who asked why British tractors could not be used, Mr Nutt said it was important for farmers to be -able to choose the mast-’-efficient tractors for their own type of work. “We have already had one instance of Mr Nash choosing our im« ports for us, in the case of piston rings,” said Mr Nutt. “We don’t want that again.” The present trend in New Zealand farming was away from agriculture towards sheep farming, continued Mr Nutt. There was a £5,000.000 or £6,000,000 market for New Zealand small seeds in Britain and it looked as if the country was not going to take advantage of it. Mr J. W. Earl asked whether the American manufacturers would allow crawler type tractors to be exported to New Zealand if no wheel type machines were to be allowed into the country. The executive decided to send a telegram to the Minister of Customs (Mr Nash) requesting an immediate review of the allocation of licences for next year and to write to the chairman of the Aid for Britain National Council (Mr F. P. Walsh) requesting his support.