PLAIN WORDS TO FARMERS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 16, 18 July 1918, Page 6

PLAIN WORDS TO FARMERS

The Hon. W, D. S. Mac Donald, Minister, for Agriculture, is certainly outspoken. A few days ago he expressed himself plainly and forcibly on the action of Dominion butter-makers who induced Australian dairymen to substantially raise the price of their butter to the Imperial Government — notwithstanding that they had already expressed themselves satisfied with what they had received. To-day he addresses himself as plainly and forcibly to those wool-, growers who, while negotiations for the Imperial purchase of the 1918-19 clip are still going on, -are pressing for even greater advantage than they have enjoyed. Mr. Mac Donald's rebuke on this occasion is not so general in its application. The butter-makers have not, either as a body or as individuals, so far as can be ascertained, expressed disapproval of the action of their- representatives in Australia; whereas the movement on the part of certain sheep-farmers to exact even better terms than they are now receiving from the Imperial Government does not find general acceptance. In fact, a number of groups of wool-growers have-emphatically and publicly expressed satisfaction with the present arrangements made by the Dominion Government to requisition their wool on Imperial Government account. At the same time, it should be pointed out that dissentients a.re riot confined to the East Coast of the North Island. There is some feeling in the South, and it has been ventilated in the local papers.

Mr. Mac Donald, however, takes a. higher stand in this matter than, that cf mere " sordid commercialism." The facts and the figures are all in his support. In the article in the Evening Post yesterday relating to the large quantity of produce held in store awaiting shipment, it was shown that in value there are a year's exports still in the country, and that another producing year begins next month. Of that produce the Imperial Government has bought and paid for) and is paying storage and irKuf ■ _aaga.(jij, A yer £84,000^000 WOttfe.. H

has paid out to New Zealand since produce was first requisitioned £69,500,000. These are staggering figures. They represent the value of three years' pre-war New Zealand exports. On the other hand, while the Dominion Customs tariff operates against British producers or manufacturers, not one penny in duty has been collected by the British Government on this vast quantity of goods of New Zealand origin. In addition, shipping tonnage, at a time when it is exceedingly difficult to spare it, has been provided for the carriage of New Zealand produce which has not been requisitioned.

The words of the chairman of the Woolbrokers' Association—" God only knows what would have happened to this Dominion if the Imperial Government had not taken our produce " —should have soaked well into the mind of every fanner and everyone else in New Zealand. Their significance is thoroughly apprehended by the Minister of Agriculture and his colleague, the Minister in charge of the Imperial Supplies Department (Mr. Guthrie); and, except for a few of them, by the producers of the Dominion also. The dire results that would follow exclusion of a whole year's exports of this Dominion from the markets that need them are only too obvious. So, too, are the reasons for the war. "What are wo fighting for?" asked Mr. Mac Donald of farmers yesterday. It is for our freedom to live and manage our affairs in our own way; and these times insistently call for " unanimity in the place of the past selfish spirit of commercialism " —to use the Minister's own words. They are commended to all farmers and others who live in this land and enjoy its freedom and liberty.