FARMERS’ UNION MEMBERSHI

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 25 January 1939, Page 3

FARMERS’ UNION MEMBERSHI

ITo The Editor! Sir,—Would you kindly grant us further space to reply briefly to Mr York on the above matter. To quote from his letter of 19th inst.: “For those gentlemen’s information, according to the most reliable source, there are 87,000 farmers in New Zealand.” Mr York has apparently fallen a victim to the common fallacy that because the Year Book, or other reliable authority, may show that there are a certain number of “farms” in New Zealandi there must, of necessity, be an equivalent number of “farmers.” Not so, Mr York! An analysis of the 1936-37 returns shows that of 85,482 “farms” in New Zealand—not 87,000 as stated by Mr Y0rk—16,776 are under 20 acres and it can reasonably be assumed that these consist largely of orchards, poultry runs, market gardens, nurseries, etc., especially as of this total 5,841 are under five acres.

There are 1,047 farms of from 5000 to, 50,000 acres, and these probably make up the bulk of the membership of the Sheep Owners’ Federation. This leaves 67,659 farms of from 20 to 5,000 acres consisting of dairy, agricultural and grazing farms, etc.

; A proportion of the owners of these j farms are members of the Dairy Farmers’ Union, which is represented on the Dominion Executive of the N.Z.F.U., and a proportion of these farms are abandoned! Of the total of 85,482 there are also many cases of one man working more than one property. It will thus be seen that the 24,000 “fully financial” members of the N.Z.F.U. covers a 1 greater proportion of the active farmi ers of New Zealand than the 25 per j cent, stated by Mr York.

| With regard to the report of the ] function held on 24th September 1938, !Mr Stevens’ general figure of 30,000 ! covered members of the N.Z.F.U., and j those in bodies directly affiliated with ; it. Press reports cannot, of necessity, | be verbatim, and Mr York must sureI ly realise that at a social gathering of that nature, actuarial figures are hardly | called for.

From the foregoing, we trust that Mr York will agree that the Farmers’ Union does fully represent farming opinion in New Zealand.—We are, etc., NGATIMOTI BRANCH N.Z.F.U., R. W. S. Stevens, President. D. I. Llewellin, Hon. sec. Orinoco. 20th January.