Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 16 March 1944, Page 4

Readers Write

In connection with the visit of Mr Amery, I, being a member of the farming community, would like to ask why the Bor-

A QUESTION FOR FARMERS

ough Council, the County Council and

the Primal v Production Council should be to the fore with matters concerning farmers? I believe there is a farmers’ organisation in Whangarej, and it is they who should be acting for us. Why are they not doing so? Are they not competent? If not, why not? Why is there not an open meeting of farmers, to meet Mr Amery? They would give him first-hand information why they can’t produce. It’s not much use Mr Amery coming thousands of miles to tell the New Zealand farmers what to do. He should go to Wellington with a big stick, and knock things about there. It is time the farming community woke up to their very plain duty of managing their own affairs. If the Farmers’ Union does not please them, produce an organisation that will, and let us all come together. But do it immediately, for we are fast slipping to being a band of serfs, not worthy of the name of farmers. —“A WOMAN SLOGGER”

Why your correspondent, G. Bravery, should jump from discussion of the Land Sales Act to the disposal of

wool. DISPOSAL

the post-war accumulation of wool I am not quite clear, unless

it is to put me ‘‘on the spot.” He challenges me to give a “reasonably scientific answer to this problem ... no interference in the farmer's business, no red tape, no control.”

The implication here, I take it, is that Government control will be necessary. He infers that “the farmer wants to control his produce himself in his own way.” The inference is correct, producer co-operative control being our policy. He would be a bold man who would essay to deal with this large matter fully in a Press letter, but as one of a Dominion F.U. committee that has been working on it for 12 months past, I can make some contribution. We have had extensive correspondence with woolgrowers’ organisations in Australia and South Africa in an effort to reach unanimity of Empire opinion on the subject. It is probable that an overseas conference will be held on it before long. This and related matters are to come before a special meeting of woolgrowers in Wellington next month. One suggestion which has been made is that the disposal of the post-war surplus should be handed over to a specially constituted authority, as was done, successfully, after the last war with B.A.W.R.A. It is suggested that an inter-Empire or international authority should be constituted of producers’ representatives of woolgrowing countries, to be financed and given powers much on the same lines as was done with B.A.W.R.A. This would proceed along the lines of the buffer stock system, buying when prices dropped to a certain level. There would be no attempt to fix prices, and there would be a return to the auction system to relate demand to supply, and vice versa. Sales by way of appraisal could possibly operate concurrently with this once the market was reasonably stabilised.

This I submit is an alternative to “State control, red tape, and interference” which has been proved practicable in the operations of B.A.W.R.A. (British Australian Wool Realisation Association) under the capable direction of Sir John Higgins. The consumer got reasonably priced wool, and the grower was protected from the catastrophic fall in prices, otherwise to have been expected. Producers, with a knowledge of the economics of woolgrowing, and markets, would be far more likely to deal with this surplus successfully than State offcials. Tire problem this time will be greater because there is a larger weight of wool, and synthetic production has grown enormously. Items on the other side are the tremendous advertisement war has given the inherent qualities of genuine wool, against the poor showing made by synthetics, and the fact that millions will have to be clothed quickly. A factor here is the probable wholesale destruction of wool-working plant in Europe. If a means could be found of short-cir-cuiting the long process of carding, combing, spinning and weaving, to produce cloth, it would serve the double purpose of getting wool into consumption and providing cheap clothes for the needy quickly. I am suggesting this to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research as a subject worth study. My idea is an elaboration of the simpler felting process to produce a fabric, lighter more flexible and with greater strength than felt as we know it. I hope this gives an indication that woolgrowers are alive to the problems facing them, and are preparing to meet them.—A. BRISCOE MOORE.