FARMERS’ UNION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 5 December 1929, Page 7

FARMERS’ UNION.

SOUTH TARANAKI EXECUTIVE. DISCONTINUANCE OF PORK SUBSIDY. Mr E- J. Betts presided over the monthly meeting of the South Taranaki provincial executive of the Farmers’ Union this morning. Also present were Messrs W. E. Carter, H. P. Dale, M. F Voullaire, H. Thrush, A. W. King, L. A. Jennings, C. D. Dickie, H. <3. Berry, A. D- Johnson, W. T. Seed, F. Evans, H. Hodge, E. J. Booth, and E. K. Cameron, provincial secretary. Arrangements for the visit of the party of British farmers to Taranaki were discussed, and a committee comprising Messrs Betts, Dickie, and the secretary was appointed to finalise them. Discussing the Government’s decision to discontinue the pork subsidy, Mr. Dickie considered that, originally, it bad been wrongly based, and should have been founded on a guaranteed minimum price of 6d per lb. Farmers, he said, had a decided grouch in that the matter of whether the subsidy was to be continued was left until the end of the session and the opening- of the pork season before it had been decided to drop it. Mr Dickie added that at no time during tlie session could he obtain a decided answer on the Government’s attitude towards the subsidy, but at its close he had received a cryptic reply to his queries, the massage being: “See the morning papers.” “Another thing we saw in the morning papers after the session was the £IOO Christmas box for members,” said Mr H. Hodge. The alleged “fishiness” in pork was referred to breifly, and a statement was made that a New Zealand farmer had fed his pigs on red clover and had cured them himself, but there had been a noticeable “fishy” flavour.

The quality of export pork was discussed. Mr* Dickie expressing the opinion that more attention should be. paid to a. balanced ration. As for' types, the Americans considered that they had the right breed. Mr. Dickie said that on his recent trip Home, he had found that the Tamworth- Berkshire cross (Berkshire boar—Tamworth sow) was favoured, but the Americans believed in the Duroo —Jersey breed, which had just been introduced to New Zealand, and of which little was known here.