‘Too much talk of drought’

Press, 26 July 1978, Page 3

‘Too much talk of drought’

Far too much had been made of the effects of this year’s drought on the farming industry, said the Dominion president of Federated Fanners (Mr Wright). “The drought did not prevent stock from being killed; it did not prevent ships from being loaded; and it did not prevent New Zealand from fulfilling overseas contracts,” he told the conference. “The lesson we should learn is that the worst of the problems are self-in-flicted — magnified by the drought maybe, but self-in® flicted just the same.” He did not under-estimste the effect of the drought on fanners, “but I also believe that even the worst effects cf the weather are some-

thing farmers have traditionally had to cope with. “What fanning required assistance for during the year was the effects of human actions,” Mr Wright said. The more obvious, and most influential, action was that taken by unions in the industry. “To meet the requirements of the commerical world, we must be able to deliver our product in the required quantities on a regular basis, but too often the meat industry of New Zealand was unable t<J do that during the last year,” said Mr Wright. The uncertainty surrounding the next killing season made all fanners extremely anxious, he said.