FARMERS’ UNION

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 248, 17 July 1935, Page 11

FARMERS’ UNION

Annual Conference Opens

LIFE MEMBERS ELECTED

Ninety delegates are attending the annual conference of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union which opened to Wellington yesterday. The president, Mr. W. J. Polson, M.P., presided, and in the absence of a member of the clergy he read the opening prayer. The Governor-General, Lord Galway, had been invited to open the conference, but owing to prior engagements he was unable to do so. An official opening was therefore dispensed with, contrary to the usual custom. Another departure this year was the absence of a presidential address. The conference will be continued to-day, to-morrow and Friday.

The honour of life membership of the union was conferred on Mr. 11. ,T. Richards, Levin, Mr. J. D. Hall, Christchurch, and Mr. E. J. Betts, Okaiawa.

WOMEN’S DIVISION

Dominion Executive Meets

The resignation of the Dominion secretary, Miss C. E. Connor, was received by the Dominion executive of the Women’s Division of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union last night, when the annual meeting was opened at the Y.W.C.A. hall, Wellington. The action of the a'dvisory board in accepting Miss Connor’s resignation with regret was confirmed, and the Dominion president, Mrs. W. 11. Ward, expressed the division's appreciation of her services over a period of three and a half years. It would be impossible, said Mrs. Ward, to estimate the help Miss Connor had given the division.

Miss Connor’s resignation, said Mrs. Ward, would take effect from September next.

Nearly 200 representatives were welcomed to the meeting by the Dominion president. For the finance committee Miss Connor reported that the registrar of patents had advised that the division’s colours could not be registered. It was decided that organisers should be allowed a flat rate of 3d. a mile for petrol, etc. A representative of the I‘ahiatua branch reported that her branch had paid for the clothes of a boy who had been sent from Pahiatua to Flock House. The cost had been £2O. and the branch would be grateful for some relief from the executive. It was decided that the Dominion executive should pay half this amount, aud that this boy should be regarded as the North Island’s responsibility. At the same time members from the South Island were reminded that they should select a boy from that island in October. It was decided lo give £l/1/- to the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society to add to the King’s jubilee gift, which lias been diverted for cancer research purposes. It was also decided to draw attention to the fact that the division's branches had already given liberally to the fund, one provincial branch having collected nearly £BO, another £3B, and a third £25.

A remit from Piako that the next halfyearly Dominion executive meeting should bo held at Hamilton next January was carried.

The following remits were rejected:— “That 2/- of each member’s annual subscription be sent to headquarters, and that headquarters refund the 6d. levy due to provincial branches.”—(Piako.) “That new members should be financial from January till the following March twelve-months, and not from October 1 till March twelve-months.”— (Piako.) “That the Dominion conferences be held biennially.”—(North Auckland.) The meeting was adjourned until today. when it will be continued at the Y.W.C.A. hall.