NEW ERA. FOR FARMERS

Evening Star, Issue 18138, 30 November 1922, Page 5

NEW ERA. FOR FARMERS

STATE-AIDED ORGANISATION. A QUEENSLAND EXPERIMENT. Under the title of “The Primary Producers’ Organisation, Act of 1922," the Government of Queensland has passol a iaw, which was crafted by Conor; .ma of producers, that is without precedent in colonial administration. When the Minister of Agriculture (Hon. W. N. Gillies) introduced it he said that rural communities, on which all progress depended, were not sufficiently organised to place their views effectively before the Government and to carry out schemes, financial and otherwise, in their own interests. Lack of organisation for marketing, tho effects of gluts and shortages, and the present unsettled nature of the world’s makets were sufficient justification for doing something to organise rural communities along non-party political lines. Not only'in Queensland, but throughout tho world, particularly in America, this need had been recognised and steps taken to bring about properly what the farmers themselves had attempted sporadically and spasmodicallv. It was no longer a matter that should “be left purely to the farmers, who should not be left to struggle along in tho old way and unite in voluntaiy bodies by which they sought to make their wishes articulate. It was the duty of the nation, of the Parliament, of the Government, to assist the farmers in the direction they had been endeavoring to go all these years. Thirty thousand producers in Queensland will be entitled to membership of the new association. The new legislation provides for tho actual constitution of the Queensland Producers’ Association, and of the sectional. organisations or machinery necessary to enable it to carry out its functions in the most expeditious and economic way. There are three sectional organisations: G) Tho Council of Agriculture; (2) the District Councils; (3) Local Producers’ Associations. , The producers’ associations will . elect members to the district councils, which in turn will each elect one representative to the Council of Agriculture, the central authority, of which the Minister of Agriculture will be president. ■ The Council of Agriculture will hold office for three years, and will be limited to twenty-live members, one-quirter of whom will be appointed by the Governor in Council, and the remainder by the producers. Among the Governor’s nominees are the Commissioner for Railways, who is director of transport, the Director of Agriculture, the general manager of State Sugar Mills, the Dairy Director, and the Public Service Commissioner. The council will control finance, and bo the executive head of the association. Tho district councils will be charged with the following functions;— Securing co-opera-tion among producers in their area; assisting in development schemes in regard to production, marketing, standardising, and other activities; suggesting schemes for making more profitable, use of the State experts and the facilities of the department; demonstrations of various kinds; cooperation in the purchase of machinery, fertilisers, etc,; herd testing; fodder conservation; and circulation of the latest information among produces. . ... The local associations will take the initiative in the following All rural matters pertaining to their, centre and the. means of meeting their requirements; bringing before the District Council, through the representatives of the centre, problems not of purely local concern, hut of common interest; supporting and assisting the. District Council to promote general prosperity; co-ordinating and co-rolatmg tho work of the progress associations and other societies, and strengthening their work in relation to rural industry. ° They will be registered by tho council, on the application of not fewer than fifteen primary producers, and will elect district councils for three years. The State has been divided into fifteen districts, and, for the purposes of simplification, primary producers have been divided into the following classes:—Dairy farmer, wheat, maize, or cereal grower, sugar ■mower, fruit grower, grazing farmer, and

general or mixed farmer (to include cotton,' potato, and vegetable growers, poultry and pig "breeders). The revenue will be derived from two main sources;(1) Levies on primary producers, at such rates as may be recommended by the Governor in Council. ( '(2) Government endowment, equal to the; amount of all levies paid to the credit of, the fund in any one year. _ | The Government endowment will operate, for five years, and the Government has un-l dertaken to bear the full cost of the organisation of the scheme for the first twelve months, such cost having been estimated _at £25,000. A director has been appointed from applications invited all over ■ Australasia, organisations have been appointed for each of the fifteen districts, and the necessary printing of rules, forms, and regulations to facilitate the work of the local secretaries has been done by the Government.