Production Council Acts To Relieve Farmers’ Headaches

Northern Advocate, 15 March 1944, Page 5

Production Council Acts To Relieve Farmers’ Headaches

Three resolutions urging action by the Government to assist farmers were passed at a recent meeting of the Kaikohe District Primary Production Council, which met under the chairmanship of Mr H. F. Guy. The three resolutions are to be forwarded to the M.P. for Bay of Islands (Mr S. W. Smith) for representation to the Government. They dealt respectively with farm labour shortage, the gumboot scarcity and the absence of fertiliser. Moved by Mr A-. J. Braeey and seconded by Mr J. Hansen, the first resolution called on the Government to make a definite statement regarding the supply of labour for farms and urged that no man released by the Army or directed by appeal boards to farm work be called into camp until a satisfactory replacement had been arranged. Speakers at the meeting, which was attended by representative farmers from Whangaroa, Hokianga and Bay of Islands, considered the position in regard to farm labour very disturbing. Unless urgent remedial steps were taken, a serious loss in production would continue. No Maori labour was available.

Herds Are Being Depleted

Depletion of dairy herds was perturbing members of the council. It was pointed out that a heavy strain was falling on older men and women, who had beeh carrying on since 1939, giving up hope of retirement. An instance was cited of a man of over 70 and a woman nearing 70 who were now trying to handle 60 cows, about 900 sheep and 150 run cattle. They had had no help on the farm since a youth had refused to work and later left. They were considering disposal of the herd, which, was a particularly good one, with an average butterfat production per cow of over 3001 b. "This is the sort of thing that will be occurring on a much larger scale,” one member of the council declared. Release Gumboots From E.P.S. The second resolution, moved by Mr A. C. Douglas and seconded by Mr A. R. Cox. was to the effect that the Goveimment be asked to arrange the distribution of gumboots without delay and to ascertain what stocks might be held by E.P.S. and other organisations that could be released to farmers. It was stated during discussion on this subject that these bodies were understood to be holding considerable stocks of gumboots, which could not be disposed of until special Governmental authority was given. The third resolution, with Mr J. W. Jones as mover and Mr J. G. Ritchie as seconder, was that the Government be asked to make a higher allocation of fertiliser available immediately.

Fertiliser Affecting Production

In this respect, two letters were received from farmers complaining about the reduced supply of fertiliser and stating that it was affecting their production considerably. A member of the council said overseas ships were arriving in New Zealand with empty holds. If this were the case, could not supplies of phosphates from Africa be brought to the Dominion. Another speaker said the cost of African fertiliser might prove to be prohibitive to the farmer in view of the fact that no fertiliser had been procurable for two or three years. It was suggested that this difficulty might be met by a subsidy from the War Expenses Account. The council agreed with a statement, to the effect that, although there had been a good growth of grass .with plenty of feed, cream production in the district was down. The main cause for this drop was the lack of top-dressing for pastures.