FARMING OUTPUT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 306, 24 November 1945, Page 3

FARMING OUTPUT

NOTABLE WAR EFFORT. NOW DEFENDING EIGHTS. The outstanding results achieved hy the farmers of N e\v Zealand in their war effort were illustrated by the president (Mr It. H. Buchanan) at a meeting of .the committee of tne Feilding branch of Federated Farmers, held yesterday to discuss questions relating to the farmers’ defence fund. Thege figures, he suggested, justilied their claim for public support in the stand they were taking over the socialistic legislation. Mr Buchanan said that the total value ol meat, -butter, cheese, etc., shipped overseas during the war period was £417,130,000. _ This figure did not, of course, take into account what had been consumed locally. The meat shipped totalled over 2,000,000 tons, while over 700,000 tons of buttei had been shipped along with 625,000 tons of cheese. Including other items such as processed milk, the major foodstuffs supplied amounted to 3,400,000 tons. The woolgrowers had produced 5,400,000 bales of wool equal to 825,000 tons, of which 4,150,000 had been shipped overseas and the balance held in store in New Zealand.

Dealing with the Pacifiic theatre of war, Mr Buchanan quoted figures relating to fresh vegetables shipped up to VP-Day. The figures were: Potatoes, 55,800 tons; cabbages, 25,900 tons; carrots, 11,565 tons; onions, 5535 tons; canned vegetables, 23,625 tons; dehydrated vegetables, 16,785 tons; fruits, 154,285 tons; other fresh vegtables, 15,075 tons. These figures, he suggested, reflected a tremendous war effort on the part of primary producers and their contribution to the political economy of the country was such as to call for greater consideration than that which was being shown by the Government. Mr Buchanan touched on the suipluses in the accounts controlled by the Marketing Division. There was a total of £19,159,084 in the Meat Pool and Meat Stabilisation Account. This huge sum represented money withheld from producers - on account of the payment for the produce received from farms. It represented the difference between what the Imperial Government paid for the farmer’s produce and what the New Zealand Government fixed to be paid. In the bobby calf pool account there was a surplue of £329,875 of producers’ money. He mentioned that the value of farm produce exported for the 12 months ended July 31 was £58,705,061, . made up of meat valued at £28.434 919; wool, £23,027,637; and butter £21,722,955. MONEY FOR SUBSIDIES.

Mr Buchanan said that it was often overlooked that the farmer was paying the subsidies which the Government said it paid. The woollen manufacturers in New Zealand received a direct subsidy from the wool growers. Over £400,000 had been taken from the Meat Pool to subsidise retail butchers so that the public couLl secure cheap meat, and £BOO,OOO had been taken from the Dairy Account to subsidise butter on the local market. The primary producers were paying all this and much more, including the inflated wage bill of today. “You cannot fight your case too strongly,” Mr Buchanan said. It was important that farmers realise today that they either contested the right of the Government to enforce Socialism on the country or submitted and allowed the Government to take everything, including the land. Piecemeal the Government was taking away .recognised and established rights a.nd unless fanners organised and opposed the

measures the Government was enacting the land would soon go the way of the Bank of New Zealand. Federated Farmers today had set out to raise a fund of £250j000 to enable primary producers to institute a publicity campaign. Branches were asked to assist and to set up special subcommittees to make contact with, all the farmers in their area. Donations were wanted right away. Mr 11. A. Stewart reminded the meeting that trustees had been appointed and the funds would remain in the province meanwhile. He suggested that the Society for Closer Relations with Russia was a Communist organisation and the people behind it were the people behind the throne in New Zealand today. He recalled that Labour’s platform included proposals to do away with the right of inheritance. Other speakers voiced concern over the trend of legislation and the meeting went into committee to discuss the setting-up of sub-committees and to arrange for the collection or donations for the defence fund.