GROWING UNREST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21529, 16 December 1939, Page 8

GROWING UNREST

Position In Dominion Spread From Country To City Reference to the growing unrest in New Zealand was made by Mr A. J. Davey, president, of the South Can- ■ terbury Executive of the Fanners’ j Union in his monthly statement to the I Union meeting yesterday, when he j reviewed the effect of industrial conditions in the Dominion. : “The growing unrest in the ranks : of the farming community to which I referred in my last monthly statement. is not now confined to that ! community." said Mr Davey. “Twelve months ago leading members of our . Union could clearly see what was happening, and they did not hesitate to point out to this and to other j sections of the community that the . difficulties which ’ were being faced by the fanners then, would ere long be the difficulties of the whole comi munity. ! "Insufficient attention was paid to I the warning which was then given.” j said Mr Davey. "City interests, lof both employer and employee, j are already facing those difficulties. , This was clearly demonstrated in , a mass meeting held in the North Island this month. At that meeting | town and country employer and ; employee found a common ground, ; and appealed to the Government to 1 save the situation for them all. Other I meetings have been held and in some cases town workers have asked that ’ the import restrictions be lifted to j allow the importation of goods in . sufficiently large quantities to ensure that their positions as salesmen and t saleswomen will be secure to them. In i the light of the present state of New . Zealand sterling exchange. it is , doubtful whether the Government is ' able even if it is willing to do so. Some t other way will have to be found to ( keep these people in employment.” Unity of Interest It was encouraging as a Union to ’ note that others, too. were beginning ; to see deary that there was a unity of interest in the Dominion, continued Mr Davey. If the combined demonstrations and appeals did , nothing more, they certainly declared , with no uncertain voice or subdued tone that the interest of other sections lin the Dominion could not be i divorced from those of the farmer. ilf he was labouring under adverse ’ I conditions, those same conditions , j would surely spread to all other ' sections, and even if the farmer was hit first he was not necessarily hit hardest. Likewise the interests of 1 employees could not be separated from ’ those of their employers. All were so ’ linked together as to be inseparably connected. One thing, however, was certain, that when the leaven of 1 adversity leavens the whole lump the wage earners, although perhaps the ’ last to feel the shock, would feel it most. If they wished, and no doubt ' they did. to make their positions and ’ their earnings secure, that could best r be done in a general way by making ' secure those businesses which pro--1 vided for them their positions and 1 their earnings. Those businesses could r best be made secure by placing the ‘ primary producing industry’ in a secure ‘ position. _