FARMERS' UNION

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVII, Issue 4473, 21 November 1933, Page 5

FARMERS' UNION

* NORTHERN KING COUNTRY. QUARTERLY MEETING. The quarterly meeting of the Northern King Country branch of the Farmers’ Union was held in the Municipal Hall yesterday, Mr. V. W. Simms presiding, while also present was Mr. Mellsop, president of the Auckland Provincial executive. Some discussion ensued on the ragwort problem, speakers favouring the use of sheep with cutting up of paddocks where this was possible, as this fencing would be a permanent improvement, whereas the purchase of sodium was an ever recurring expense. The chairman held that one of the biggest insurances against the spread of ragwort would be to guard against a rise in the price of sheep. Mr. Mellsop stated that a weed destroyer which had been tested for a year at Tauranga appeared to be very efficacious, and it would be very much cheaper, he understood, than the sodium which was rapidly rising in price. The Labour Question. In reply to a request for the speeding up of authorisation of farm work under the unemployed labour schemes, the Minister of Employment asked for specific cases. The Chairman: “It is not a question of unemployment contracts just now —it is a question of getting labour of any description that is worrying the farmer. It is very serious at the present time.” The speaker gave an instance of a farmer who went round the camps trying to get a farm hand, and though he was offering more than the men were receiving, he could not get one man. It was a shocking state of affairs. Mr. Mellsop quoted a case where it had been unable to obtain a man for scrubcutting near Auckland. Yet it was utterly impossible for the farmer to pay higher wages—already they were paying more than they received themselves. Native Leases. Reporting on the native land question, Mr. Boddie stated that a man who had been on a certain property for 33 years’ hard work on it, has recently received the sum of £8 for his equity in the lease. He had spent £lO an acre on improvements, but after 33 years his share for the whole farm was £B. The native land tenure was the worst in existence. In Oparure some of the best land in the King Country was in the worst condition, simply because the occupiers had no incentive to work the properties. Pointing out that these were very different from those drawn uu by the Te Kuiti Committee, Mr. Cooke (Otorohanga) proceeded to outline pronosals which had been carried by a meeting attended by 40 or 50 interested farmers in Otorohanga some time ago. There had been Maori representation during the discussion, he pointed out, and they had been in agreement with them. His branch was still working on that basis. The nroposals were as follows: That the Crown be asked to buy the freehold if the natives are agreeable, and that the leases be made Crown leases. That the Commissioner recommend a better way of ensuring that compensations for improvements are paid. That the Board be asked to get power to vary existing leases if the native owners will agree with the variations. That the lessees should be able to freehold at the present unimproved value. That in future leases, a right of purchase be inserted, with the right to buy at the value when the land was taken up. That liability for special rates be capitalised and taken off the unimproved value. That the Board be asked to get authority to sell vested lands on right of purchase in place of the present leases. That where there is no proper access to native land the same should be provided with access at the expense of the (native owners. The Maori leaseholder was in the worst position of any man on the land at the present time, Mr. Cooke continued, referring to his own case. But he understood when he took up his land that he would be paid for all his improvements or else take a renewal of his lease. He did not know that he could be thrown out at a moment’s notice. They had you whatever you did—there was no justice in it. All improvements had been deflated out of sight, so the men went out with nothing. A man could not be expected to work with such a prospect before him. Mr. Boddie held that at the present time it was not to be expected that the Government could find the sum which would be necessary to freehold these farms; while the money paid over would go the same way as the £300,000 which had been paid over to the natives some years ago, which had been spent inside a year. After some discussion Mr. Boddie pointed out that the object of the committee was to talk over the various proposals and decide which proposals would be most in the interests of the Dominion. It was therefore decided to wait until these had been formulated. European Immigration Wanted? Mr. M. Anso (Otorohanga) advocated the increasing of the population of New Zealand by 1,000,000 during the next three or four years. To attain this end Europeans, so long as they were of the right class and a farming population, should be admitted and invited to settle. The people of Denmark, Czecho-Slovakia, Germany, Poland, and Sweden would all make good citizens. They would not make Englishmen, but they would make good New Zealanders. “If we do not do this,” Mr. Anso prophesied, “we will have the Japs here inside fifty years. The Danes and others came out 60 years ago and who can say they were not good citizens? , _ Mi*. Cooke: “What about the Doukoubours?”

Mr. Anso: “No, I don’t want any of your Doukoubours. I want good respectable citizens. I have to keep four horses on my farm, just because no one is ready to earn a living by going round working horses. We want more 10 to-50 acre farms. Why, it would almost pay us to pension off the whites at £3 or £4 a week and import kanakas to do the work! I don’t want a coloured population. We should become, not German, but New Zealand Nazis. We should have to borrow money, but if by expending £SO millions, we obtained a million good people, it would be worth while. If we can get Scots or Englishmen, then by all means get them, but if not, go for the Poles, Swedes, and all the others. We have got to have them. Let them be told they will be welcome in New Zealand. They will be content to live in a mud whare just the same as some of our early pioneers had to. Civilisation is not motor cars, wireless and jazz; it is the ability to communicate with the brains of the world.” Mr. Lurman: “Douglas credit?” Mr. Anso: “Oh, Douglas credit! I leave that to the brainy men. I can’t understand it.” It was asked by several present if there were any restrictions on the immigration of Europeans. Mr. Anso considered that more should be done to encourage them if they were of a desirable farming class. Mr. Mellsop asked if there would not be a danger of such immigrants augmenting the ranks of the unemployed. The chairman spoke against the suggestion. Farming should be put on a business basis before importing more farmers. Our own house should be put in order first. Mr. Lurman argued that the more farmers there were on the land the more likely it was that farming could be made to pay. Mr. Mellsop pointed out that New Zealand had a huge body of unemployed already wishing to go on the land, while any borrowing of £SO millions would only add to the farming community’s burden. Mr. Anso pointed out that he had started with nothing. For. the first nine years he had lived in an unlined hut. This was only an example of what the pioneers had to do. Eight hundred acres of ragwort and gorse, native land, fringed his farm because of the low population of farmers. New Zealand’s standard of living had got too high; it was coming down and would be coming down for several years yet. The present system of farming had outlived its usefulness. The motion, proposed by Mr. Anso, seconded by Mr. Lurman, that the Government be urged to encourage immigration, not only from the British Isles, but also from the European countries, for the purpose of settling these people on the land, was lost.