FARMER'S DESIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 133, 7 June 1944, Page 7

FARMER'S DESIRE

TO BE LEFT ALONE

PATH TO PROSPERITY

DUNEDIN, June 6.

"The primary producer does not want something for nothing. He wants the right to work out his destiny, and one of the main things he wants is to be left alone," said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, when officially opening the annual conference of the Otago Provincial Council of the Farmers' Union. There could be no prosperity for New Zealand unless the country as a whole had a better understanding of the problems of the primary producing industries. There were many persons who did not realise the significance and importance of the outstanding part played by the primary producers in New Zealand's war effort. In spite of difficulties in relation to man-power, supplies of fertiliser and increased costs, in places where they might have expected support they found nothing but discouragement. "With the exception of the fighting forces," Mr. Holland added, "no section of the community has contributed more to the war effort than the primary producers. The women, children, and elderly men who have assisted in maintaining production on the farms are deserving of the highest praise." Appealing for increased production, Mr. Holland said he was conscious of the problems of the primary producers, but there was something more important and it was that the people of Britain must survive. The farmers as primary producers must be careful not to let local prejudices cloud the vision of the real picture, which consisted of 46,000,000 brave people fighting for survival.

In planning the future there was too great a tendency to emphasise the superstructure in the way of social security and social services and to forget the importance of the primary producing industries. If New Zealand was to prosper they must restore some of the ingredients of prosperity, one of ■which was freedom. Let them cut the strings of State control and restrictions. They must encourage thrift and teach self-reliance and must also encourage enterprise and legitimate profit-making. He believed in profit as an incentive to production, and it was production that would give the people of New Zealand happiness and prosperity.