FARMERS' UNION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 44, Issue 13603, 30 July 1918, Page 3

FARMERS' UNION.

DOMINION CONFERENCE.

Sir J. G. Wilson (Dominion president), in the course of an address to the Dominion Conference of tho JMow Zealand Partners' Union at Wellington today, stated: — With our other products, wool is still much tho largest, and the.value of it is stated in the statistical tables to be £12,U00,000. There is still an enormous quantity of avool unshipped at tlie present moment in store, and apparently, unless we can get some of the old "wind -jammers" to vako it away to its destination, we shall have the next clip piling up. Fortunately thero is no deterioration from storing as thero is, although only to a small extent, in our stored food products. If anything can draw* us closer to the Mother Country, the treatment by the Imperial Government in relation to our products, and especially wool, should tighten the invisible bonds, .lust imagine, if we had been a German colony and the Kaiser had been able to control our products. The military would havo made very quick work with us. We should havo been lucky if wo had got anything. Resistance would have been useless; we should havo been treated in the same wav as the Ukraine peasant who refuses to give up his grain to the military forccs'sent to collect it. The peasant is shot and the grain taken without payment, or at the best a scrap of paper handed in return for the produce of much less value than tho green backs of th e United States after "tho civil war. Imagine the position at the present moment if Aye had to deal with tho German Government. Our stores are full ot" wool, our freezing chambers full of meat, butter and cheese. It is not possible to think that any consideration Avould have been given lis. Our Avhole financial position Avould be a chaos; we should be back again to the early days, Avhen there avlis scarcely any money to circulate. The only thing that could b e said for '• certain was that wo would not starve, for avo can grow enough food for the poople, and avool to clothe thorn. We have, of course, some little claim on the English Government, because, for war reasons, they havo taken away tho trading vessels Avhich wo relied on to transport our produce. The main point was to Avin the Avar —that is tho one question of the moment to the Empire, and I think avo may claim to havo dono a little towards it. Tho Imperial Goa*crnment, however, has acted generously to us all through. They first helped us with money until Aye got into our stride. They bought our avool, meat and cheese, aud latterly our butter. The wool was bought, paid for, and stored at the Imperial Government's expense, Avhich possibly is reasonable seeing that the shipping is entirely in their hands. The meat, however, was paid for f.0.b., aud that entailed tho financing of tho transaction by the companies, firms, or indiA-iduals Avho bought. When it Avas shown that this Avas hampering the finances of the Dominion, the Imperial Government advanced three million, and that has helped much, although the value in the chambers is much greater than that sum. It is easily imagined what a find it Avould be for the Germans to lift all this meat for their soldiers; it would give them a good feed for a Aveek. Then tlie cheese Avas bought; Avhen there Avas anxiety about the butter that was purchased, too, and butter and cheese advanced again, enabling the companies to pay to the suppliers their Avellearned cheques. When all this is contrasted with what would have hap. pened had the Huns been our masters, avo can see what it is to belong to an Empire, the Mother Country of Avhich treats her children in the A\*ay she has done, and Avhat a bond of union it creates, as avcll as tho glorious fact that our boys are at the front together with the men of nearly all tho other countries of the world, except those from Germany, Austria and Turkey, and we thank God that avo are not on thoir side.

This brings us to the poiut of the offer of the Imperial Government for the wool production of the Dominion up to tho end of tho war, and twelve months after the month of June on peace being declared. Tho Union has expressed no opinion as a whole upon this point, because the Provincial Conferences have been held before tho offer arrived. The Australian clip has been purchased on these terms, as well as the slipe wool of tho Dominion. I hope, therefore, that the decision of this Conference will be that we iiot only agree to the terms of the Imperial Government, but state that the wool-growers of the Dominion recognise the great efforts which the Imperial Government have made to help us in our need. I do not think the townspeople recognise tbe benefits they have derived from not o-iiy tho Imperial Government, but the i roducers of the Dominion. It appears some aro harping still in their meetings of how wrong it is that tho wool growers are asking for 55 £--er cent, when ouly 4-i per cent was offered over lull prices. The lower figuro would havo been much below market prices, aud while tho growers were prepared to sell at market price, they did not think tliat ov.c class ( of producer should be asked to pay a special tax towards war costs. Thiit the market price was above even the 55 per cent, I know, .tor a clip of wool which was sold late in J9ll after the war started fetched more it aid the year the 55 per cent on 19J4 prices was'paid. The '.o>yx\ return from the 1914 clip was 10 per con*; above iho sum paid for the clip after the wool was purchased. The salo enabled the British ish Government to save millions of money, and was, I believe, below tho market price at the time of tho sale. As far as tho increased storage, is concerned, we, a 3 farmers, unless we are shareholders of freezing works (which we ought to be) have no voice. The additional space if it is provided must bo a matter between the authorities and j the freezing companies, and even then I any increase is governed by the surplus ! power they have. The fat lamb question, however, will fall upon the agricultural farmer who breeds from bought ewes and fattens both ewes and lambs. It may be possible to in the ewes and not occupy space. The lambs ar 0 really the difficulty. There are, however, not like. :ly to be so many black-f acos among them, and these, if possible, should be killed. It is, however, quite likely that a number of white-faced lambs will havo to be carried over, and for these the only way is to grow winter feed. It t is for this reason that I say the plough. j man is th e most essential man in this I Dominion at the present moment. Not only do we require to get as much wheat in, but we must, as farmers, prepare for the worst and hope for the best, but as prudent men we must make every endeavour to grow as much winter feed as we possibly can.