SOUTH CANTERBURY BRANCH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2985, 31 May 1911, Page 22

SOUTH CANTERBURY BRANCH.

TIMARU, May 27. ( The annual conference of the South Canterbury Farmers' Union to-day was largely attended. The meeting discussed affiliation with the Employers' Union, which was disapproved, for fear of being involved in industrial awards.

The proposal to form a political party connected with the union was also disapproved, but it was decided to refer the information on the subject to the branche3 for consideration.

_ Several farmers expressed strong objection to the new railway regulations regarding the delivery of goods at small stations on certain days only as a cause of inconvenience when the goods were wanted urgently, such as bags at threshing time.

Mr John Talbot was re-elected president, and was appointed to represent the branch at the Dominion Conference. At the subsequent luncheon Mr Turner, president of the local Employers' Association, assured the farmers that industries wanted as little to do with the Arbitration Court as possible. A freezing works' manager said that those establishments had to work under no less than 16 awards.

THE SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE. INVERCARGILL, May 28. The conference of delegates from the various branches in Southland of the Far. mers' Union was continued in Invercargill on Saturday. The conference unanimously approved of the introduction of suitable youths as farm labourers under careful selection fromi Great Britain.

Other resolutions carried were:—(l) Favouring a further amendment of the Crown Suits Act, making the State liable, as in the case of private employers, in regard to compensation claims; (2) favouring the importation of female servants; (3) advocating a universal system of cowtesting in the interests of dairying; (4) affirming that pasteurisation of milk and whey at dairy factories should be compulsory ; (5) urging the Government, in view of the depletion of the natural forests, to continue afforestation in suitable localities ; and (6) to remove the duty on imported timber and abolish differential railway rates.

The conference also passed a motion expressing appreciation of the efforts of Mr Lysnar, of Gisborne, to improve the handling of New Zealand produce in London.