SOUTHLAND FARMERS' CONFERENCE.

Otago Witness, 1 June 1910, Page 20

SOUTHLAND FARMERS' CONFERENCE.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDEESS. (Fbom Oub Own Correspondent.) INVERCARGILL, May 27. At the annual provincial conference of the Farmers' Union to-day, the president (Mr H. J. Middleton), in his opening address, welcomed the delegates to the ninth conference held in the Southland provincial .district. It afforded him pleasure to recognise that it was about as well attended as it had ever been in the past, which was evidence that Southland as a whole was taking a keen fcjaterest in this organisation. It was very necessary and proper that that should be so, considering the importance of the industry. The delegates were there to represent the union influence. It was necessary that the representatives of that industry should continue to endeavour to place the opinions of the members of that industry before the public, and to lead and educate public opinion in the direction in which the union thought that opinion ought to go. He held that the union had to a very material extent so educated public opinion. He could give innumerable instances, but two would suffice. The first and most important of these was the land question. The marked influence the union had on the land question a few years ago, when proposals were brought down by the Government which the union held were against the interests of the community it represented was within the recollection of everyhody. The influence brought to bear was so great that the land proposals were practically and unconditionally withdrawn.— (Applause). The other instance he would refer to was universal" military training. Two years ago the speaker had the honour to form one of a deputation from the Colonial Council which waited on the Prime Minister to bring before him a great many questions on which the union held pretty strong opinions! Among those was the question of universal military training. Incidentally, he might mention that the very first public men to move in this direction were a past and the present presidents of the Auckland provincial branch of the Farmers' Union—Mr Phillips, M.P. for Waitemata, and Major Allan Bell. These were the first public men, so far as he knew, who advocated universal military training in New Zealand. To proceed witb the Prime Minister's reception of the Colonial Council of the union, the speaker stated that he had great difficulty in reconciling the opinions which the Prime Minister expressed at a meeting the other day at Winton and the opinions he expressed in answer to the union's petition. He gave the deputation absolutely no encouragement whatever in the matter, and condemned the proposal of universal training in no measured terms, stating that there was not the slightest hope, in his opinion, at that time, of bringing about universal military training in New Zealand. At Winton the other day he commended the proposal in the most whole-souled way, and stated that he was prepared to adopt it to Lord Kitchener's recommendations. That, of course, was gratifying to the union, and to public people who had endeavoured to shape public opinion in that direction. It was encouraging to the Farmers' Union to go on. A PROSPEROUS YEAR.

It was very gratifying to the speaker to be able to refer to the marked difference in the material prosperity of this country to-day from what it was the last time they sat in provincial conference. At that time they were passing through a pretty severe financial depression. It was short, but it was sharp, and at no time in the previous 30 years had the money market been eo tight as tilery er just a little before that; It was .gratifying that that condition, has passed) and that all now: The fafffiers had had 6n th§ whole it very brbeperoui year; standing the . fafct that they iufeed to &dffl& iSteht ixotn. droughti and the &S*i-

cultural exports had gone up enormously. The balance of trade was somewhere about £s,ooo,ooo—that was, - the balance of exports over imports. Wool had been selling at an extremely remunerative rate, and had Dut a great deal of money m circulation. The frozen meat trade, which opened very-badly, had recovered to a marked degree, and growers of mutton and lamb had had a very good time indeed.

DAIRYING, A BIG FUTURE. The dairying industry was going ahead in a most extraordinary way. It was going to be, he thought, the big industry of the country. It occupied third place in value of the exports, and was very quickly making up to frozen meat, being only a matter of about half a million pounds behind. It was going to be a most important factor in bringing about the closer settlement of the land—a greater factor than ever the graduated land tax in getting large estates put on the market, on account of the greatly increased prices that would be given for land suitable for dairying. Mr Middleton quoted figures to show that the export of cheese had increased in value from £248,883 in 1901 to £1,186,708 in 1909—an increase of £937,235. Butter had . increased from £790,160 to £1,635,373 in the same period. This was an enormous increase, but he thought that the industry was go'ing to play a very much more important part in the history of the country yet than it hithertofore had played. He would like to take the opportunity of saying that all credit was due to the Government for the assistance given the dairying industry by law, and by providing dairy experts. In that respect they had brought the industry-just about as far as it could be brought at that end of the business, but there was very great room for improvement at the producers' end of the business. There, was, he considered, no branch of farming that was managed in such % slipshod way as the dairying branch, and no branch was capable of so- much improvement. There was a vast number of dairy animals being kept that were absolutely worthless for the purpose, and when one man rejected these worthless animals, he passed them into the open market. Some other man bought them, and so they passed on from hand to hand and year to year, until they died of old age. It would be a splendid thing for the industry if dairy farmers would rise to the occasion and say that the culls were not to go into circulation to propagate and be a hindrance to the industry. These animals ought to be speyed. Such a movement would have, a marked influence on the value of the dairy industry in a matter of 10 years. There was just one danger in the dairy business : It was leading, and had led, to very inflated land values, which was not a good thing for the country as a whole, and certanily not a good thing for the individual who had to give the extreme prices that were being given in some places in New Zealand for dairy land. They were in the habit of blaming the Valuation Department for putting up the unimproved values, but he thought that farmers themselves were responsible also for putting up land values unduly. People could get into a farm on very easy terms, and they very likely shouldered an enormous burden, and only by the most strenuous toil could they keep their engagements. Where that was done the land was given an inflated value that was not good for the country, and unfair to individual farmers. Notwithstanding this, dairying was an exceedingly good business, and a great deal of money had been made out of it, and would continue to be made out of it. The prospects for its future were bright. Canada, our greatest competitor, was falling off in her exports. Her own population was increasing at such an tenormous rate that it was overtaking the production, and the products were needed for home consumption.' While Canada had unlimited territory, a very great deal of—it was not suitable for dairying. Canada was having the experience that America, had had of losing ground as a food exporting country owing to the tremendous increase of her population making a correspondingly large inside consumption and an equal decrease of exports. Pie did not think there was another country so ideally situated in its mild climatic conditions for dairying as was this Dominion, and he was convinced of the great future before the industry. OFFICE-BEARERS. The election of officers resulted as follows :—President, Mr H. J. Middleton (re-elected); vice-presidents, Messrs J. M'Queen and T. W, Foster; auditor, Mr D. S. Cochrane (re-elected); delegates to conference), the President and Mr M'Queen; executive—Messrs H. G. Brass (Benmore), H. P. Henrickson (Balfour), Jas. Cushnie (Edendale), W. Ford (Isla Bank), F. J. Limscott (Thornbury), W. Reid (Pyramid), C. S. Stevens (Opio), A. Wayte (Otamita), J. Smaill (Riversdale), R. Tapper, jun, (Otautau), W. Couser (Mataura Island), J. M'Kerchar (Woodlands), and G. P. Johnston (Waikaka Valley).