FARMERS AND POLITICS

Hawera Star, Volume L, 11 December 1930, Page 10

FARMERS AND POLITICS

MEETING HELD AT MOLOIA

OuiLIAEOE HALL Ik. - OBJECTS

An appeal tor all larmers to attend tin;, rany to be. liaJu m tne Law era !«_rpera. riouwe on Wednesday next was made by -Mi. C. Harris, organiser tor the Farmers’ Union, to a meeting oi tanners at AloKoia last evening. He ■ba Telly outlined the purpose of toe meeting and stressed tue necessity ior farmers to take political action in toe crisis now being faced by the. industry. Mr. L. E. Bell 'presided. There were meetings to. be held throughout tne Dominion and the initial one. at Hawera had to be representative and comprehensive, said! Air. Harris'. it was hoped there wound be from 1600 to 1500 Runners present.

At the present time, with the existing prices and nigii oveiloau., it was serious tor not only the farmer, but also the general community. The main object, of" the meetings was to endeavour to get other sections of the community to isee that their interests were bound up with those oi the farmers and. to .realise the existing position. The Farmers' Union had no intention of setting up a 'political party, hut simply to make the politicians take proper notice of the tanners’ plight. With the present circumstances hundreds of farmers would go off the land l next winter aucl that was what the union desired to prevent. .The existing crisis was .the most serious in the history of the industry and irrespective ol what each farmer might be doing on Wednesday next he. was urgently requested to attend, the rally. Unless relief were given to the man with a high rent lie. would be forced oil Lis land and relief also had to be given the farmer whose mortgage, was about to fall due. Personally, he did not beiieve. in a moratorium because he considered that such an action simply staved off the evil day. Certain proposals would be made at the rally and farmers would he asked to support them. A free discussion was invited and members of the commercial community were invited to hie present. Organisation was proceeding everywhere and the expectations were that the rally would 1 not only be liarge, but also fruitful and extremely valuable.

The chairman stated that on the initial meeting would prossibly depend the success of the following rallies. . “There is no 'political party movement behind the rally; 1 can assure you of that,” said! Mr. Harris in reply to a question. “Wo have too many politicians and no statesmen,” said Mr. T. EL Bickford. who expressed the opinion that .parties should, if possible, be abolished. “What you ready want to do is to apply to the leaders of the various parties and ascertain their attitudes towards the farmers’ platform,” said Mr. D. Si. Rieardison. “Farmers and commercial people should most certainly endeavour to have the Arbitration Awards abolished. Every man should, be paid on his merits.” “I know of several instances where men have been discharged because their firms could not pay the award wage, and they had had no option but to. dismiss the men,” added Mr. Bickford. “The Union wants Parliament to be called together bv February at the latest,” said Air. Harris in reply to a. further question. “After the Hawera meeting the others will follow in rapid succession.” “The farmers' problems have to lie tackled not from a party viewpoint, but from a national aspect,” added Mr. Harris. “The farmers, however, will have to stand solidly 'behind the movement if true success is to. he achieved.” “We have too many Al’s.P.considered Air. Bickford. “And they could quite easily be reduce.;! in numbers and salaries as well.” commented Mr. Richardson. •‘What about Air. Sterling and the railways?” queried a member. “We could do without him quite easily,” replied' another. Air. Aloran considered that the farmers had to show strength and at presient the farmers had only a small idea of their actual voting strength, which was immense. His idea, was there should ba no parties and that every candidate should have independent views. “The first essential of the Farmers’ Union should be to establish a platform to which candidates could lean,” considered Air. Richardson. “The public and the farmers would also have to be educated towandb that platform.” All-. N. Lee said that the chairman of the Control Board who received £750 ,1:0.1' year and the secretary, at £2OOO, ter year, could very easily have solb-j stantial salary reductions. Personally 1 he could not see why the hoard shoo*id not be abolished. Air. Harris stated that action was being taken in more centres towards the abolition of the board. The Control Board had recently resolved to abolish standardised cheese, but it was now evident that the Government did not propose to do so. said; Air. Ric-harclson. In that event a vote I of no-confidence was shown in the board ' bv the Dairy Division and to bis mind the board should resign in a body as a protest. Other speakers expressed! similar opinions. The chairman stressed the -desirability of all. district farmers attending the rally and asked that every endeavour be made to be 'present.

MEETING AT TOKAORA

A meeting of members of the Tokaora branch of the Farmers’ Union was also 'hold last evening as a preliminary to the rally. The meeting was given an interesting and stirring address on the subject of the conference by Mr. E. K. Cameron, provincial iseoretary of the •S'outh Taranaki executive. Mr. H. Thrush who presided, said there was no set- programme for the evening and he l’.oped members would express their opinions freely on the subjects that were being widely dltscnissed. ] Various matters such as the bank (charge for accounts and reduction of salaries and wages in the industry were' briefly discussed bv the meeting. Mr. Cameron referred at some length to the rally and said he had 'been attending meetings in many {daces and 1 hoped that farmers would be behind the* move on bloe. He considered it an honour to Hawera, that the first move was to lie made here, and added that farmers had to move as an organised unit and! not to drift as' they had done in the past. They must have a political significance but no party aspect, and also an organised vote force behind any i movement they resolved to support, just | as was the case with the industries in the cities. Now Zealand, lie added. wasi waiting for this and the executives of the union bad held meetings to decide and declare ( lie policy of the big conference. They mush realise their big move must be economic, not political, and they necd-<-r| a driving force behind; the 'loaders. The farmers had been drifting for a long time, but, it was not too late for them to get behind the organisers and give them 100'per cent, attendance and supiiort. There was a big leak and it had to' ho stopped. There were to be. lie added, six oonI'erenecs. with the first at Hawera, to see if the farmers would walre up. At the conference there would lie- eight of

the best- speakers in the ranks of the union and all must stand shoulder to shoulder in the cause.

He briefly reviewed the planks of the meeting —equal opportunity to all, better finance, an early session of Parliament. improved methods of taxation, with derating of farm lands, reduction in customs tariffs, reduced costs of" production removal of arbitration court restrictions, because the farmer > could j ay only reasonable wages, reduction hr the costs of government, which had been “built up while farmers had been asleep.” and were crushing the producing force out. of the farmers. The towns ,added Mr. Cameron, were waking up to see how much they deponded on the farming industry. The farmers had to wake up and stand sol.ll v behind the- executive of the Union and see that every member, as well as every farmer in the district, came to the rally. The union u r as only as strong as each one could make it and if there was an overflowing attendance, Parliament would know what force was behind the industry. Air. Finlay suggested that the .subnet of trade within the Empire might wefi be added to the agenda, for he considered that the neglect of British trade had been one cause of our downfall. Mr. Standisih. approved, adding that thw all spent too much outside the Icm~iro anil there should he a. prohibitive tariff on American goods. Air. Cameron said that they would deal at the conference with every possible question and that it would! be a farmers’ meeting, under the direction of the union. The meeting would begin -t 10.30 a.m. and 1 continue without a break till perhaps 4.30 p.m.. with the main gathering at the Opera House and the overflow in the Grand Theatre. On the motion of the chairman a rt'crtv vote of thanks was accon'died -to Mr. Cameron for bis address. Ho .said i V must geT behind the loaders to their own interests and must put ••If every engagement to come to the conference.