UNITY AMONGST FARMERS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4959, 23 February 1937, Page 5

UNITY AMONGST FARMERS

PROGRESS OF ORGANISATION. MR. BLACKMORE INTERVIEWED. One man who has been particularly active in the interests of King Country farmers and the primary industry as a whole lately is Mr. A. H. Blackmore of Waihi, a member of the executive of the Auckland Farmers' Union who has spent a considerable amount of time in the Northern King Country on the business of his Union in recent weeks. • Interviewed during the week-end by a representative of the Chronicle, Mr. Blackmore stated that he was very gratified at the response of the local settlers to the appeal of his Union to form one big organisation pledged to the conservation of farming inter: ests. "Farmers are rapidly realising that in the present complex state of aifairs in New Zealand with units in every form of industrial activity organising in their own interests, it is imperative that they should come together to put an end to the exploitation they have suffered in the past through their lack of unity," said Mr. Blackmore. Questioned about the prospects of the Farmers' Union in the Northern King Country, Mr. Blackmore said that over 90 per cent, of the farmers whom he had interviewed had shown that they were awake to their own interests as an industry and had agreed to join the Union in order to present a united front in formulating and pressing their demands upon the Government of the day. He was particularly gratified that the Tangitu Settlers' Association —one of the most progressive farmers' organisations in the King Country — had been public-spirited enough to merge its identity into the larger body with 'which he was associated. Dealing with future prospects for the farmer, Mr. Blackmore said that in all his experience he had never known the members of the industry so united as they were at the moment. "I have no time for the old aphorism that 'Farmers cannot pull together'," said Mr. Blackmore. "They 'are agreed on fundamentals and now that'we have in office a Government which is apparently prepared to listen to organised farming opinion and give it its due place in our national economy, farmers are united in demanding the same measure of economic justice as enjoyed by other sections of the community. I feel that, provided the farmers pull together as they have been doing in the past few months, one of the gravest injustices from which our principal industry has been suffering for many years—l refer to the disparity between the returns of farming and those of; other forms of industrial activity—will be removed for all time." Mr. Blackmore left for Waihi during the week-end, but will be in the King Country again within the course of the next few days.