FARMING COMMISSION

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4801, 23 June 1939, Page 5

FARMING COMMISSION

ROYAL COMMISSION.

WIDE ORDER OF REFERENCE.

The personnel of the commission of inquiry into the sheep-farming industry of New Zealand was announced on Wednesday evening by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. W. Lee Martin. The order of reference of the commission, said the Minister, would be extremely wide and would cover all phases of the industry. The commission, which was to be vested with the powers of a Royal Commission, would commence its investigation as soon as the necessary preliminary arranrgements could be made.

The chairman of the commission will be Sir Francis Frazer, and the other members are as follows:—Mr. H. M. Christie, a prominent farmer, of Hawke's Bay, who has been chairman of the V/00l Publicity Commitee since its inception and is a member of the Massey Agricultural College board of governors; Mr. A. A. Cook, general secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union, who has had a long experience of the sheep-farming industry and has a special knowledge

of all conditions of farm and station labour; Mr. R. A. Rodger, who has had a long experience as land purchase officer of the Lands Department and has an extensive konwledge of the stock and station business; and Mr. R. C. Todhunter, of Methven, one of the best known back-country runholders in New Zealand.