WHEAT PRICE ACTION Farmers Await Results Of Deputations

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31595, 5 February 1968, Page 1

WHEAT PRICE ACTION Farmers Await Results Of Deputations

North Canterbury Federated Farmers will probably withhold action for the time being on withdrawal of its support from the North Canterbury Agricultural Advisory Committee.

When leaders of Federated Farmers met Messrs H. L. Pickering, M.P. for Rangiora, and C. C. A. McLachlan, M.P. for Selwyn, last Monday, they agreed to a suggestion of Mr Pickering’s that the two members of Parliament should press the Government to hear representatives of wheatgrowers with a view to reconsidering the reduction in the price of wheat already announced.

But if the Government adhered to its decision the farming representatives agreed that North Canterbury Federated Farmers would have no option but to withdraw support from the committee. A seven-day limit was set.

The provincial president of North Canterbury Federated Farmers (Mr R. H. Bedford), who is also chairman of the North Canterbury Agricultural Advisory Committee and who Is one of those who announced at the meeting that they intended to resign, said yesterday that as the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake) had now indicated that he would be prepared to receive a deputation and the Government would presumably be prepared to review the situation, he felt that action on the withdrawal of support from the committee would be held over pending the outcome of the discussions.

The deputation will meet the Prime Minister and the chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Wheat Prices (Mr Adams-Schneider) on Wednesday afternoon. Mid-Canterbury Advice that Messrs Holyoake and Adams-Schneider would meet a deputation from Mid-Canterbury this week was received at the week-end by Mr A. Lloyd, secretary of the Mid-Canterbury provincial district of Federated Farmers. The Mid-Canterbury Federated Farmers’ deputation may combine with deputations

from the North and South Canterbury districts. Ashburton wheatgrowers had inundated the local Federated Farmers’ office, and executive members, since the announced drop in price, said Mr Lloyd. He said he had received many calls at his office and home, and Mr D. K. Mackenzie, chairman of the MidCanterbury executive, Mr H. Barton, the agriculture section chairman, and other officers had also received many telephone inquiries from farmers. Generally, the callers had sought assurance on the latest action being taken by the local district executive. Mr Lloyd said the deputation to the Prime Minister had resulted from dissatisfaction expressed at a Federated Farmers’ meeting in Ashbur ton last week.

“Mid-Canterbury farm leaders are taking every possible action in the matter, realising that it is of utmost importance to local growers,” said Mr Lloyd. Farmers had invested large sums in bulk handling machinery and storage facilities and were now committed to growing wheat. The drop in price was unjustified. Farmers had increased pro* duction of wheat at the request of the Government, and the price drop represented a drop in income for Ashburton growers alone, of $388,000, Mr Lloyd said. (Effect of Rain: P. 12)