Message to Farmers from New Minister of Agriculture

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 62, Issue 2, 15 February 1941, Page 69

Message to Farmers from New Minister of Agriculture

AFTER holding the portfolio of Minister of Agriculture for more than five years, the Hon. xx W. Lee Martin has resigned from the Ministry because of ill-health, and has been succeeded by the Hon. J. G. Barclay, who has been Member of Parliament for Marsden since 1935. Mr. Barclay is also Minister of Marketing. Following are messages written for the “ Journal ” by the new . Minister and the retiring Minister.

f I ’HE whole of my working life 1 has been spent in farming. I went on the land straight from school, and with the exception of three years at the war, I farmed continuously until 1932, when I sold my holding and retired to live in Whangarei. Ever since my entry into public life many years ago, the welfare of the farming community has been prominent in my thoughts and actions, and now that I have been charged with the two Departments of State most concerned with the production and distribution of our agricultural and pastoral products, I can assure the farmers of the

Dominion that they will find in me a most sympathetic friend. Their problems will also be mine, and in a spirit of mutual goodwill we should play an ever-increasing part in the economic and social progress of our country.

To-day we are in the second year of a titanic struggle against a brutal and ruthless enemy which threaten® not only our democratic way of life, but our very existence, and in these critical days the farmer has a vital part to play. New Zealand is a substantial supplier of foodstuffs and raw materials to the Mother Country, and in time of war every farm becomes a munition factory.

The response of the farmers to the call for extra production of certain commodities has been excellent, and worthy of the best traditions of our race. It indicates the will to win which will make victory certain. Furthermore, I feel confident that whatever call is made on our farmers, the response will be equal to their very best endeavours, and they can rely on co-operation in every

effort they make to meet any situation which may arise. At the beginning of my term of office as Minister of Agriculture, I want to extend the hand of friendship to each and every farmer. I realise that there are difficult days ahead, and at times some of us may not see eye to eye on certain specific problems, but so long as we place first and foremost the interests of our

country and the interests of the British Commonwealth of Nations, we have nothing to fear, and we have before us a future of hope and promise. To-day our basic resolve is victory for Great Britain and her Allies. Together, let us march to victory. —J. G. BARCLAY, Minister of Agriculture.

Message from Retiring Minister of Agriculture

AN my retirement as Minister of Agriculture, I wish to express my thanks and gratitude to all those who have co-operated with me in my five years of office. When I was entrusted by the first Labour Government with the portfolio of Agriculture, I saw before me a very wide field of opportunity, and during my term as a Minister of the Crown I have endeavoured not only

to increase the productivity of our soil, but also to advance the welfare of the men and women who have dedicated their lives to the production of all those, necessities of . life which are wrested from the good earth. There is no more dignified calling and no calling upon which the world is so vitally concerned.

As I hand over the administration to my successor, the Hon. J. G. Barclay, my mind is filled with memories of —arduous years—spent in a field which has been very close to my heart. I have enjoyed my term of office. Right or wrong it was always based on my conception of my duty to-

wards my fellow farmers, and, although I am now retiring to a more leisurely way of life, the farming community will still find in me an ardent champion. I have a profound confidence in the future of our agricultural and pastoral industries. There are problems to be solved—there always will be—but with the knowledge we possess and the knowledge that research will surely yield, there are tremendous possibilities before us. In the advances to be made the Department of Agriculture will play a vital part. Just at the moment the clouds hang low, but let us remember that when winter comes spring is not far behind.

—W. LEE MARTIN.