FARMERS’ AFFAIRS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 27 May 1944, Page 5

FARMERS’ AFFAIRS

POSSIBILITIES OF COMBINATION REPLY TO SHEEPOWNERS’ PRESIDENT Wanganui, May 26. "The members of the Wanganui provincial executive of the Farmers' Union are not such innocents abroad as Mr j James Begg, president of the New Zea- j land Sheepowners’ Federation, would | have the Dominion believe,’ ’said Mr R. j O. Montgomerie, a member of the Wanganui executive, replying to the state- i ment by Mr Begg, reported in a Press j Association message from Dunedin yes- ■ terday. “In moving the resolution to which , Mr Begg has taken exception, I mentioned that the farmers’ federation was an organisation in name only and that it-would be an extravagance to call it a skeleton organisation, for it possesses neither the backbone (that is, the membership) nor the stomach (that is, the finance) with which to become the saviour of our great fanning industry,” said Mr Montgomerie. It is Mr Begg who is behind the times in that he seems to be unaware of the Land Sales Act and the Local Bodies Election and Polls Amendment Act. and be unaware of the further threat that lies ahead. The Wanganui Farmers’ Union realises that this amalgamation with the Sheepowners’ Federation is a step in building a real flesh and blood farmers’ federation that alone can protect the farmers’ interests.

"In such a federation.” Mr Montgomerie continued, “the wool men, of whom i Mr Begg has made mention, would have undisputed authority over all sheepl'arming affairs with the really effective support of the greater body to press home the representations of the sheep, section. I even envisage such a federation with a farmer president on an almost full-time job at £I2OO to £ISOO a year, with an adequate honorarium to every member of the national executive, and a brain at the back of such a body at a salary up to £6OOO a year. Only then could the rank and file of members feel that their future was not going to be one of economic serfdom. “We have seen too much already of the utter ineffectiveness of the present separate farmers’ organisations. The Wanganui province, by the tenor of its discussion, showed that it had reached the stage when it expects deeds not words from an organisation which has every farmer as a member. The farmers of New Zealand are looking to Mr Begg to assist them in this urgent and worthy objective.” MERGER PROPOSAL New Plymouth, May 26. •‘The urgent need for amalgamation of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union and the New Zealand Sheepowners’ Federation is fully realised by the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, which, at a meeting at Wellington last week, gave the federation a date by which it had to come to a decision,” said the president of the North Taranaki executive of the union. Mr H. E. Blyde. at New Plymouth last night. Mr Blyde was commenting on the report of the meeting of the Waneanui executive of the union, at which all possible haste was urged with the amalgamation. Mr Blyde said he understood fhat a majority of the branches of the federation were in favour of amalgamation, but that some of the executive officials were opposed to it. The Farmers’ Union had gone to exceptional lengths to accomplish its proposal. even offering to sink its identity and pool its verj’ considerable resources. It was now considered that negotiations had proceeded for a sufficient period, and the federation had accordingly been given a date by which the union expected a decision to be made.—P.A.