STRONG PROTEST BY FARMERS

Southland Times, Issue 23953, 20 October 1939, Page 8

STRONG PROTEST BY FARMERS

Government Powers Questioned

BURDEN OF COSTS ON INDUSTRY HIGHER PRICE WANTED FOR DAIRY PRODUCE (United Press Association) HAMILTON, October 19. The opinion that the emergency powers assumed by the Government under the Marketing Amendment Act bore the cloak of socialism was expressed by speakers at a special mass meeting of farmers held in Morrinsville today. In a resolution, which was carried unanimously, the meeting protested against the legislation and demanded that at the next session of Parliament it be amended. More than 1500 farmers attended the meeting. Moved by Mr F. W. Seifert, chairman of directors of the Morrinsville Cooperative Dairy Company, the following resolution also was passed unanimously:

That this meeting of farmers of Morrinsville and the surrounding districts fully realizes that the best contribution farmers can make to New Zealand and the mother-land is increased production of primary produce, but we must emphatically draw the attention of the Government to the fact that a stimulus to production cannot be brought about as long as the farming industry, through inadequate prices, is unable to pay competitive rates of wages and meet the increased costs of production. With a full knowledge of our responsibilities to the country, we definitely express the opinion that the increased costs in the farming industry, the wages required for the increased labour on farms and to the point of shipment and other expenditure necessary to stimulate production necessitate our demanding from the Government that a price not less than the price for dairy produce suggested by the Dairy Industry Council in its representations to the- Minister of Marketing (the Hon. W. Nash) is a just one and should be paid for the 1939-40 dairying season. A third resolution, moved by Mr M. E. Barrowclough, president of the Morrinsville Branch of the Farmers Union, demanded that the dominion executive of the New Zealand Fanners’ Union call a national conference of primary producers to discuss the position with the Government and to demand an urgent answer, and, in the event of an unsatisfactory reply, the meeting promised to support the executive, in any action it might consider necessary along the lines of the resolutions earned at the meeting.