BAY OF PLENTY FARMERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 842, 10 December 1929, Page 7

BAY OF PLENTY FARMERS

CONFERENCE AT OPOTIKI MANY REMITS PASSED Fro in Our Own Correspondent OPOTIKI, Monday. A conference of delegates of various branches of the Farmers’ Union in the Bay of Plenty was held at Opotiki on Saturday. The Minister of Agriculture, in a letter, said he would do his best to see that the Noxious Weeds Act would be administered as effectively as possible in respect to Crown and native lands. In reply to a letter opposing an increase in the wages of Civil servants, and asking for a reduction in the costs of services, the Postmaster-General stated that he did not propose to grant inci'eased wages. The secretary said this was the opposite to what the Minister had stated in Auckland. In reply to a letter urging that a considerable proportion of Waihi swamp now devoted to flax growing should be utilised for dairying, the Minister of Lands, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, said he had obtained a report, which showed that the land was peaty and sinking. It was resolved to ask that the question be given further consideration. Several remits were passed, including the following from the Omokoroa branch: —“That the provincial executive bo asked to support an increased benzine tax to meet existing liabilities upon all loans, in additions to the whole of the maintenance costs of roads, in view of the fact that all roads are now used principally by motor-vehicles, and that the allocation of the benzine tax to county councils be upon a more equitable basis”; “that the provincial executive be urged to investigate the proposed unemployment insurance scheme, especially with regard to the ultimate effect upon primary producers.” From the Opotiki branch: —“That the Local Election Polls Act be amended giving facilities for electors in municipal local body elections to record their votes by post in any part of the Dominion should they be absent from their own locality on the day of the taking of the poll”; “that all protection of deer be withdrawn”; “that this conference earnestly recomments the Government to proceed immediately with the construction of the East Coast Main Trunk railway from Taneatua to Opotiki.”