PREMIER AND FARMERS

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14773, 12 October 1921, Page 5

PREMIER AND FARMERS

A DOLEFUL DEPUTATION MR MASSEY'S TONIC. PLEASANT SURPRISE TO COME. (By Telegraph.—Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. While the House attended to various matters of smaller importance this afternoon, Mr Massey received a deputation from the Dominion executive of the Farmers' Union, and made some important statements in reply to its representations. A Gloomy Forecast. Members of the deputation, headed by Mr W. D. Hunt, were decidedly gloomy in tone. They insisted that the position of the farmers was critical. Many men could not pay their way or meet their interest charges, and complete disaster threatened them. They urged most, strongly that the whole community must share the bad times, that the Government must retrench drastically, and that the standard of \vagos must come down. They asked for the abolition of ' preference to unionists, which had increased the burdens of the fanners by. creating on artificial standard of wages and conditions. Mr Massey's Retort. Mr Massey's retort was very important. He said the members of the deputation appeared to have forgotten that he was a producer himself. He knew the difficulties of the producers as well as any man in the room, and better than some. He had been through the depression of the 'eighties, and people who knew what happened then ought to be able to keep up their courage under the present conditions. Their statements were likely to be the biggest blow that the credit of the country had received for many years past, and he felt thatvery keenly, because il was his business to maintain the credit of the country. A Splendid Start. He could assure the members of the deputation that, the Government had made a splendid start, with economies. Ministers realised fully that the first thing was to bring national expenditure within the. revenue, and then to reduce taxation. That was the policy of the Government, and it. was being carried into effect. Already there had been a savins- of £1,500,000 per annum in the expenditure of the Government, and he had accepted a reduction of £2OO in his own salary.

Saving £2,000,000 a Year. He had on his table the report of the Board he had set up before he went to England to consider economy. This Board had done very good work: its recommendations would.require the support, of Parliament before they were given effect to, but be could say that the recommendations proposed a saving of £2.000.000 a year in addition to the savings he had mentioned already. He believed that this reduction could be made without serious hardship. "We have to look the position squarely in the face as reasonable and intelligent men," sain the Prime Minister. "For Heaven's sake, don't encourage this spirit of pessimism, which seems to "be growing! The position to-day is that any single, man can get employment at 10s a day, and any married man at 12s a day." Mr Mathieson: That is the worst feature of the whole thing. We who arc not getting 5s a day must pay for it.

Mr Massey: How much has the farmer earned during the last five years ?

A delegate: It is gone. Extra Incomo Absorbed

Mr Poison assured the Prime Minister that the extra income received by the farmers during the war years had been absorbed by the increased cost of labour and increased charges, and costs of all kinds. The land had actually gone back in many cases. The increased value of land had been the farmers' undoing, because they had increased their mortgages and their overdrafts at the banks. Mr Massey: I appeal to you not to go about the country talking as you have talked to me. That, sort of thini; must do a tremendous amount of barm. The people of our race have had to face difficulties over and over again. The Government is doing, and will do, everything possible. That is the principal part of the business of this session of Parliament. Difficult Matters. Turning to Ihc question of preference to imionists, the Prime Minister staled that this question would be considered by the Government, before the session came to an end. The next business to be taken in band by Parliament was the tariff. Farmers must, not imagine that these problems were easy to settle, Amendments of the kind suggested would be a matter of legislation, and he pointed nut that this would have to go to the Labour Bills Committee, and it might never appear again. He believed that the labour laws of the Dominion were capable of very considerable amendment. The point raised by the deputation would be considered seriously, and in the way that it deserved. Not Unfriendly. Mr Hunt assured the Prime Ministor that the deputation had come in a friendly spirit. The Government had been urged for years past to increase expenditure in every direction, and Ihc farmers were trying now to strengthen its hands in effecting economics. Mr Massey: Yon 'have staled your case very clearly, but do not go about talking as if this was Ihc end of all things. Mr Marshall: We are all doing our best to carry on and we arc going to right to the, last ditch. Mr Massey: You will find work done during the next three months that, I believe, will lie a pleasant stirprise to you.