SUSTAINED INTEREST PRIME MINISTER AS FARMER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 27, 31 July 1912, Page 8

SUSTAINED INTEREST PRIME MINISTER AS FARMER.

The Prime Minister (Hon. W. F. Ivlassey) visited tho Fanners' Conference today and was most cordially welcomed. He reminded tho union that he was one of it's first members. He was not "only there as a Minister, but also as a farmer. He was not there to disclose 'the policy of the Government, bat he could say that a policy would be laid before tho country next Tuesday. He could not go into details, but the Financial Statement was already in the hands of the printer. When that Statement came befora the country it would be found that special attention' was being paid to the two great subjects of land settlement and land tenure. What it was proposed to do would, he ventured to believe, be satisfactory to those present at that meeting. He hoped that the two Parliaments — that of the farmere and "the other — would be successful in promoting the best interests of tho country, and the agricultural and pastoral development of it. Ho referred in terms of regret to the absenco of the President (Mr. J. G. Wilson) through indisposition. Mr. T. Mackenzie, ex-Prime Minister and ex-Minister of Agriculture, was also present, and was accorded a most hearty welcome. The people of New Zealand, he believed, were now taking a greater interest in the pastoral and agricultural progress of the Dominion. He had always, as a member and as a Minister, felt the greatest pleasure in his association with the union and ite members* Ho gave the union his assurance that it could command the beet services he could render to the agricultural and pastoral industry. He thought the late Government left the Agricultural Department bettex; than they found it. Mr. Massey woi by far the most suitable member of tho Government for the.administration of the Agricultural Department. He -trusted the work 'co well begun would be continued and improved upon. They muet bring to their aid the very greatest knowledge and tho beet stock they could secure for money. It was a continual delight to him to know that the Department was going on and prospering.