FARMERS AND CO-OPERATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18545, 4 May 1922, Page 7

FARMERS AND CO-OPERATION

COMPULSORY POOLS ADVOCATED. , MR W. J. POLSON’S VIEWS. * (Pee United Press Association.) MASTBRTON, May 3The 00-openltiop of farmers to protect their own interests was the policy of the Farmers’ Union .enunciated by the dominion president (Mr W. J. Poison) to an. enthusiastic meeting of members to-day. He pointed out the necessity for better' marketing,, shipping, and banking, facilities, which could only be brought about by cooperation. "He explained what had happened in America in connection with man keting. There the Farmers’ Union had received an enormous impetus. It had eight million members, and had been granted by Congress the rights of compulsory pooling He* strongly emphasised the necessity for compulsion, and declared that the weakness of the present Meat Export Control Act was the responsibility placed on the shoulders of the board to decide whether compulsion should be applied or not. He agreed that the board 1 had made a good beginning on small matters, but could not satisfy the producers until complete compulsion was established. He detdt at length with the proposed dairy pool, strbngly supporting the proposal. He urged that -with 12,000 miles of a handicap, and tjhe strong probability, as the result of the Genoa Conference, of Siberia’s early return to the butter trade, most complete organisation should be undertaken to enable us to maintain our position. The union was strongly supporting the dairy pool. He dealt with the question «f costs, but characterised the Bolshevists’ proposal to reduce rents and interests compulsorily as double-edged, and likely to destroy all confidence in the country. The was out for an agricultural banking system, based on the German system. He' quoted President Taft’s address, and explained how_ the system had been .adopted' in the United States, and what it. ha_d done to provide/cheaper and more plentiful money for .the producers in the country which had adopted* it. He explained the Farmers’ Union shipping proposals. including the appointment of a shipping board, and pointed out that it was useless to send trade commissions to the East without shipping. The present freights wero prohibitive. We must follow the example of America, Holland, and Japan, and subsidise shipping if we desired to participate. He dealt at some length with the work of the union in connection with dairying mattera, and explained that half the members of the union were dairymen. He concluded by an apnea! for complete unity amongst all olasses of the farming community at' this critical stage in our existence. ~