MR POLSON’S PROPOSALS.

Southland Times, Issue 21073, 3 May 1930, Page 5

MR POLSON’S PROPOSALS.

To the Editor.

■ Sir, —Although for some time I have been unable to join in the council of our local farmers, I have followed with interest their doings. I took note of Mr A. Hamilton’s remarks to the Farmers’ Union, regarding the inequality of the man on and off the land and the things he said were mostly “the things that we ourselves do know” and to me there was more in Mr Niederer’s query “What arc you going to do about it?” How I have come to Mr Polson’s speech. At first reading, I was taken with much he said, but since having time to chew it over, I have come to the conclusion that it is more the guarded utterance of the politician and is a political address from the M.P. for Stratford than the bold utterance we should have at this time from the leader of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. We must all agree with Mr Polson in his statement regarding our trade with America, for our dealings should as much as possible, be with those who trade with us and if we can turn our cash back to our own people it will be wise. As one who held from the start of our control boards, that one board for our meat and dairy produce was sufficient, I am very pleased to see Mr Polson’s statement regarding that matter and hope it is the considered opinion of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. lam satisfied we will have more efficiency and 75 per cent, of the expense of one board can be saved. Mr Polson is very vague on the wheat question and it is not the first, time, he wants a cheap loaf, we all do, but what about the other fellow? There is not much said about the extra tax on some of our best farmers who are an example, by way of chiploying labour and doing things well, of course, they are few in numbers and heads count, but the principle is there and the screw will have another turn.

In his statement about, pay for married and single men, I hope he is not scraping the principle of equal pay for equal work. I see on the Tc Anau road the wages of the man who shovelled S/- worth is to be made up to the fellow' who did 14/- worth —the big fool, will he do it again? Mr Polson’s remarks about lowering farmers’ taxation by way of the totalisator and beer is just piffle. But, sir. neither Mr Polson nor Mr Hamilton touched'the sore that is cankering our industry, the wound that is bleeding the man on the land white, I refer to the Arbitration Act as administered by the Arbitration Court, a law that was meant for good and did some. But what was meant for good has become a curse to this country. Mr Sim said Mr Polson was game, but neither Mr Hamilton nor he was game enough to touch that. Why! Are they frightened? Their lot would be the same as the man in Australia who did. A few years ago Mr Polson’s predecessor, that grand old man, the late Sir James Wilson, approached the Arbitration Court regarding the treatment. meted out to the man on the land compared with the awards given to those off it. There was no data available, that was a short cut out of the difficulty and nothing could be done. A department under Mr Fawcett was set up and for the past eighteen months at least the information is there, to prove beyond dispute that in the best dairying districts of the North Island the average income of the farmer with, in most cases, his wife and children all working late and early, is £I7S per annum, while many have less in a week than is paid on relief works ip two days in Invercargill. Wc here in Southland with*the best agricultural climate in the world, the best tract of agricultural land in New Zealand and I believe exporting more primary products per head of our population than any part of the British Empire, we are doing this under adverse conditions. Every farm is crying out for labour. Economic conditions are forcing farmers in this fine agricultural country into purely grassland farming. We are told, daily, farmers are not seeking men. Why? They are being sucked dry paying wages to those employed off the land, who are sheltered under the Arbitration Court, to be able to pay those on the land. They are also taxed to keep up others on relief works whether they work or not, as see Tc Anau road. The sheltered industries now come to the farmer's door, the lad who is working for £1 per week hands his milk cans in the morning’ to his brother, who is sheltered and gets about £4 12/6. The flax cutter is now to get 13/- and 15/- per ton, while the farmer for growing it for four years will get about 7/-. The farmer in some cases has just about been giving his wool away, for the price of taking it from the sheeps’ backs and marketing it, yet the price for the clothing of himself and family is not appreciably lower and so on. Mr Hamilton and Mr Polson have not shown the way out. Are they game or are they frightened of Harry Holland and the Arbitration Court ? Mr Polson is away north, I have no doubt he has pulled the wool over the eyes of many, but I venture to suggest that before he gets through the Canterbury wheat growers and gets back to Stratford with cheap wheat for the hens, he will get some of his wool pulled. He cannot serve two masters.—l am, etc., DAVID MARSHALL. P.S.—I am sending you a Scottish paper in which is a report of a meeting of an agricultural society. The toast of agricultural interests was moved by a nephew of my own and responded to by the president of the National Farmers’ Union. Some of the remarks are applicable here.