Aim To Speak With One Voice

Press, Issue 32345, 10 July 1970, Page 8

Aim To Speak With One Voice

A small delegation from the Waikato province of Federated Farmers visited the North Canterbury province this week to talk with members at branch and provincial level and to learn something about the problems of Canterbury farmers at first hand. Later they went to Southland on a similar mission. The visit to North Canterbury this week of Mr C. H. Gordge, president of Waikato Federated Farmers, and his senior vice-president, Mr D. T. Spring, followed an earlier similar visit to the Waikato by North Canterbury farming leaders, y Mr Gordge said that -the visit was really a good-will mission “because we believe there is a need for Federated Farmers to be a strong national body.” To that end their aim had been to obtain an understanding of local farming problems and farmer opinion in the province,

“We have come to see for ourselves and meet some of the officials of Federated Farmers at both branch and provincial levels. We will be doing the same in Southland and we hope later to visit all other provinces in the South Island in the same way. It is my belief that visits of this sort are long overdue. Because of the success of this mission in obtaining an understanding of other people’s problems, delegations from other provinces should embark on similar missions. “We have been tremendously impressed by the reception and the hospitality that we have had and the opportunity that we have had to allay any misunderstandings that may have arisen in the past. “Coming from an area with a completely different farming background and forms of farming, we have welcomed the qpportunity of not only getting an understanding of their problems but also their opinions in order that as representatives of farmers we may speak with one voice. “We have found that in the main the economic problems of Canterbury farmers

r are not much different from f those of our farmers. We all 1 share the concern about the 1 narrowing gap of profitabil--1 ity from almost all farming • enterprises and I am sure > that I am speaking for both i provinces when I say that > we are hopeful that the f forthcoming Dominion con- > ference will be in a position f to make positive and coni structive suggestions for ap- - proaching this economic - problem.” i Questioned about support given to farmers by Mr Muldoon in his Budget, Mr Gordge said that this had ’ been welcomed as a real iri- , dication, at long last, that ; the Government was aware

that farmers had been losing confidence. But it was his personal view that the Government had somewhat under-estima-ted the financial requirements of agriculture. It was hoped to be able to convince the Government, rather sooner than later, that there was an urgent need for it to take some of the cost supports on a percentage of cost rather than on a straight-out subsidy basis. Only by so doing would the Government be accepting—what they as farmers considered to be absolutely essential—some degree of the cost of inflation.