§ 26. Mr. WILLIAM NICHOLSONasked the President of the Board of Agriculture whether, in sitting up the new Central Agricultural Advisory Council, he first asked the Royal Agricultural Society and the National Farmers' Union to nominate representative members, or whether he appointed members to represent those societies without consulting them; whether Mr. Padwick was elected by the Farmers' Union to represent them; whether he can state how many acres Mr. Padwick is at present farming; and whether he will consider the advisability of appointing as members of committees dealing with agriculture only those persons who are directly engaged in farming and who, from their present practical experience, are able to advise on agricultural matters and on the cost of production?
§ The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the BOARD of AGRICULTURE (Sir R. Winfrey)The new Central Agricultural Advisory Council is an amalgamation of the late Lord Rhondda's and the President's Advisory Committees. The 23 members of that Committee were nominated by himself, and the members of Lord Rhondda's Committee were nominated by the principal agricultural societies. In order that the council should in future be wholly representative in character, it was considered desirable to ask the societies referred to in the first part of the question to stand sponsor to the new council for certain of their members who were already members of the President's Advisory Committee, and on that account were to become members of the new council. The societies referred to were therefore invited by the President to nominate those gentlemen as members of the new council, in addition to those by whom they had previously been represented on Lord Rhondda's Committee. A reply has not yet been received from the Royal Agricultural Society. Mr. Padwick is a Vice-President of the National Farmers' Union, and has been nominated by that body as a member of the council.
In answer to the third part of the question, Mr. Padwick, who up to last year occupied more than 1,000 acres, retired from active farming in order to devote himself to his many public duties in connection with agriculture. Mr. Padwick is chairman of the West Sussex Agricultural Executive Committee, and would be regarded by the farmers of his part of the country as fully qualified to advise on agricultural matters and on the cost of production.
In reply to the last part of the question. I cannot agree with the hon. Member's suggestion, which would exclude many men of wide experience and scientific knowledge who, not being directly engaged at the moment in farming, are able to devote their time to the study of agricultural questions.