DAIRYING INDUSTRY

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19451, 15 December 1934, Page 8

DAIRYING INDUSTRY

WELLINGTON CONFERENCE THE SYSTEM OF RATING. LOWERING OF INTEREST RATES. WELLINGTON, Friday. The subject of relief to the farming community was debated to-day at the Dairy Conference, with an abundance of resolutions and counter-proposals. The conference turned down the idea of a direct subsidy to cover running costs, in favour of proposals recommending : (1) The abolition of the present incidence of rural road rating, and the substitution therefor of a system by which the user of roads will pay. (2) The lowering of interest rates.

(3) A reduction of tariffs. It was also decided to support the establishment of a Rural Finance Corporation, as recommended by the Dairy Commission, and to urge that interest rates on loans to farmers should not exceed 3§ per cent. Before the debate commenced Mr W. lorns appealed to the delegates to concentrate on a feasible proposition, instead of beating the air. If they asked for something that was reasonable he thought they might get somewhere. Reduction of Farm Costs.

The following remit was carried ■unanimously:—“That this meeting is of opinion that immediate steps should be taken to reduce farm costs, and to this end the rural finance corporation, as recommended by the Dairy Commission, be brought into force immediately. The meeting urges that interest rates on loans to farmers should not exceed 3| per cent.” A remit- urging that, as the present system of hospital rating was inequitable in that it imposed an undue burden on the rural dweller, it should be discontinued and the neoessary funds derived from national taxation, was adopted. . Unanimous support was accorded a Whangarei remit opposing quantitative restrictions. It was contended that no restrictions should be placed on New Zealand products in Britain without restrictions first having been placed on foreign products. It was decided to ask the Government to adopt a universal farm dairy instruction scheme, two-thirds of the cost to be borne by the Consolidated Fund. The conference was concluded.