MEAT FOR DISTRESSED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21116, 25 February 1932, Page 12

MEAT FOR DISTRESSED.

OFFER BY FARMERS. PREPARATION FOR WINTER. An announcement that farmers in the northern Thames and Bay of Plenty districts were prepared to give quantities of stock for relief of distress in Auckland next winter if delivery were taken forthwith was made by Mr. S. J. E. Closey on behalf of the Farmers' Union at the conference of social workers held at the Town Hall last evening. Mr. Closey said branches of the union in the two districts had notified him that fal siork was abundant and prices were low. The farmers must reduce the stock on their holdings with the onset of autumn and rather than accept uneconomic prices at the sales they would prefer to give the animals away, provided some organisation would accept them now and undertake to have them killed and frozen for consumption 1 by distressed city families next winter. On receiving an assurance that the matter would be capably dealt with the farmers would be prepared to hold stock '"drives" forthwith. Last winter, Mr. Closey continued, he had been obliged to decline offers from the country of firewood in bulk because there was no base in the city where it could be cut up. Similarly, he had had to refuse root crops in bulk for lack of a depot where they could be cleaned and bagged. He favoured a joint social workers' organisation because the existence of a central committee would furnish a new basis for the farmers' giving. Under such a system much might be done to solve the fuel problem next winter. The provisional committee set up at the conference was requested to confer with Mr. Closey regarding the offer of stock.